A preliminary investigation by the Secretariat of the Swiss Competition Commission into information exchanges in the Swiss labor market has found indications of collusion on employee compensation and benefits among more than 200 large companies in various sectors. While the preliminary investigation was initially limited to the banking sector, it became apparent that information exchanges on wage-related topics also occurred in other sectors. Due to the large number of parties involved, the Swiss authority decided that developing best-practice guidelines would be more effective in remedying the situation than launching an in-depth investigation into the behavior of each company. Therefore, the Swiss authority closed the preliminary investigation without opening a formal investigation and without imposing any sanctions.

On 1 March 2024, the Swiss Federal Council published the dispatch on the taxation of teleworking in an international context. The new regulations serve as a national basis for the taxation of teleworking by cross-border commuters to ensure the implementation of the new international treaty regulations with France and Italy in Switzerland. These changes will affect the taxation of salaries of employees who are not resident in Switzerland for tax purposes but who work in Switzerland and are subject to an international supplement agreement regulating telework in a cross-border context.

When reports come in through whistleblowing channels or concerns about employee conduct otherwise arise, a recurring issue has been whether internal investigations must consider the principles of criminal procedural law. In a recent decision, the Federal Supreme Court held that this was not the case and confirmed a reasonable balance between the obligations of employers and the rights of employees provided for by Swiss law.

The revised Data Protection Act (nDPA) and the revised Data Protection Ordinance (nDPO) will enter into force on 1 September 2023. The revised Swiss data protection law is “a GDPR-like” legislation and provides for certain (new) obligations not contained in the current data protection law.
In an employment relationship, an employer inevitably processes employees’ personal data for various purposes. This client alert aims to inform employers about their data privacy obligations under the new data protection law and provides an opportunity to test data protection compliance.