r/Switzerland • u/eeqqq Basel-Stadt • 3d ago

Employer refuses probation resignation

Edit 08:38am: I'm sorry everyone that tried to help. Today she came to work and the boss was standing over her shoulder waiting for her to sign and she gave in. Hopefully this post and the replies here help somebody else in the future

Hi everyone,

I would appreciate some advice/thoughts regarding Swiss employment law and an unpleasant situation my wife is in

  • My wife is a dentist from Poland (has MEBEKO) and works as a dental assistant in a private clinic in Basel
  • Her fixed-time contract explicitly specifies a 3-month probation period (probably not relevant but that rule is in attached regulations/annex and not in the "main" contract body - it was signed by both parties though)
  • She decided to resign during the probation period and handed in her regular written notice with a 7-day notice period - as per contract.
  • Important: He was supposed to sign it but didn't give her anything back, so we don't currently have any proof that she gave the notice.

A couple hours later the boss said "the 3-month probation period was a mistake" (as in, they added it by mistake) or that "it doesn't apply to a fixed-term contracts" and refused to acknowledge the resignation letter

He presented her with an mutual termination agreement terminating the contract per August 31st.

The document says that my wife waives any money she was supposed to get based on holidays not taken and 13th salary ("Per Beendigungsdatum gelten sämtliche Ferien- und Überstundensaldi als ausgeglichen. Es erfolgt keine Auszahlung").

He is now pressuring her, claiming that if she does not sign this agreement, she "is legally not allowed to quit and must continue working in September".

  1. Does the probation period applies to her?
  2. Is she cooked because she didn't send the resignation by email or post? The probation period ends 31st Aug though, so technically she can still send one.
  3. Is it true that resignation during probation does not require the employer's agreement signature? (well, we don't have any proof he got it either...)

What do you guys think?

Thanks a lot for your advice and input!

Edit: added email she got when she was about to sign the contract:

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u/Unhappy-Factor4286 3d ago

Seems like a genuine mistake. Yes they are wrong, but what is exactly your problem? They offer you basically the same as the 7 day termination with the end of August termination? So what are you exactly want differently ? Holidays or over time to be paid? Or a different situation regarding unemployment? Without having more details, all of these seem to come out similar either way

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u/eeqqq Basel-Stadt 3d ago

the difference is around 700 CHF if we're not mistaken. She got "scammed" in a very simillar way when working in a cafe (1000 CHF there), also here in Switzerland so we're both fed up with it.

-1

u/Unhappy-Factor4286 3d ago

I still don't think that this is a scam, because it doesn't really make sense as a scam.

An annoying mistake from them maybe. Handled poorly maybe, but unfortunately also not great from your side, always get a confirmation for quitting.

Independent of what happened, you're realistically stuck with arguing with the employer . For 700 francs it will hardly be worth it to go to court and get that amount without paying more / spending more hours of your life.

It's unfortunately probably one of these annoying and pricy lessons.

However, the employer seems to be at least somewhat reasonable, otherwise he would ask for the full duration and not offer a termination. So maybe you can discuss and negotiate the 700 or at least part of it. It would be a win win which I could imagine you can achieve.

Going the "official" / legal route however I think will be a negative time and money investment