Flexibility or pressure? Swiss lawmakers move to cut home office rest

Swiss lawmakers are advancing an overhaul of home office rules that would slash mandatory daily rest periods and expand legal working hours for remote staff. While pro-business politicians argue the changes simply legalise how modern employees already balance work and family life, trade unions warn the move will gut basic protections and push staff toward round-the-clock availability.

Shorter rest periods & wider working hours on the table

At the centre of the debate is a push by the Council of States' economic committee (WAK-S) to relax the Swiss Labour Act for remote workers. Under the proposed changes, the mandatory daily rest time between shifts would drop from 11 hours to just nine. The maximum daily window in which an employee is permitted to work would also stretch from 14 hours to 17.

Crucially, the committee shot down a counter-proposal from the National Council that would have enshrined a legal "right to disconnect" to protect staff from after-hours messaging.

What is the reasoning behind this?

For supporters like Thierry Burkart, a politician from the centre-right Free Democratic Party (FDP) who spearheaded the initiative, the overhaul simply brings outdated regulations into line with modern habits.

Telework researcher Jana Z'Rotz from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts agrees that the traditional nine-to-five routine has permanently splintered as around 37 percent of the national workforce now works from home, at least occasionally.

"Fundamentally, it is the flexibility that the home office offers that is attractive," Z'Rotz told Watson. "You can organise your everyday life more freely than if you go to the office."

Burkart argues that many parents use this freedom to log off in the afternoon to pick up children from daycare, choosing to finish urgent tasks late in the evening once the house is quiet. Under current Swiss law, firing off a quick email at 9pm technically violates the 11-hour mandatory rest period if the employee logs back on at 8am the next morning.

"With the initiative, we want to adapt the law to reality," Burkart argued, insisting that the relaxed rules would give workers more freedom to shape their schedules rather than forcing new obligations upon them.

Freedom or creeping pressure for Swiss employees?

Trade unions and labour advocates strongly push back against the proposal, arguing that weakening rest requirements threatens employee health.

Daniel Kopp, chief economist at the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB), dismisses the idea that current legislation stifles everyday workers. "I have yet to hear of an employee who feels overly restricted by the current law in the home office," Kopp told Watson. "The centre-right wants to solve a phantom problem."

In Kopp's view, the proposal serves employers rather than workers, creating an environment where staff face mounting pressure to remain permanently on call. The primary purpose of the Swiss Labour Act is worker protection, he argued, and lowering baseline safeguards undermines that foundation.

Burkart counters that the reform creates an entitlement rather than an obligation. "Employees can organise their working hours more freely if they wish, but they do not have to," he said, maintaining that the law would still protect staff from mandatory work during their time off.

Why legal limits act as an official shield

Beyond the political clash in Bern, the reality for employees on the ground is often far less clear-cut. Independent workplace researchers question whether genuine choice can truly exist once legal guardrails disappear.

"Whether someone is really working late in the evening voluntarily, or doing so due to pressure or implicit expectations from their employer, is very difficult to distinguish," Z'Rotz pointed out.

Surveys of employers reveal clear corporate incentives, Z'Rotz explained. Managers frequently cite the convenience of employees continuing to work from home when caring for a sick child, or logging on remotely despite having a cold to avoid infecting colleagues.

While boundary creep already occurs under existing rules, rigid statutory limits give people working in Switzerland an official shield. "If I have a legal regulation that clearly defines my rest periods," Z'Rotz emphasised, "I can at least rely on that as an employee."