Paid public holiday: the Micasa lesson for SMEs

The debate starting from Micasa falls at the heart of a very concrete question for Swiss employers: when a public holiday closes the company, can staff be asked to work more on other days to meet the scheduled weekly hours? According to information reported by 20 Minutes, the furniture store asked its employees to make up for the hours not worked on 1st August, which provoked internal criticism and the intervention of a labour law specialist.

For an SME, the matter is not anecdotal. It directly affects planning, time recording, salary calculation and the risk of disputes. A public holiday poorly handled in the accounts can create questionable negative hours, disputed overtime balances or inequalities between full-time, part-time and variable schedule employees.

At Micasa, a weekly calculation that angers staff

According to 20 Minutes, Micasa stores are closed on the national holiday. In the reported case, 1st August fell on a Saturday. The company reportedly reminded in an internal communication that its theoretical weekly working time was spread from Monday to Friday. Consequently, as no theoretical working time was recorded on Saturday, there would be no credit hours or reduction in the scheduled weekly working time.

The practical consequence is significant: managers were reportedly invited to organise teams so that employees reach their theoretical working time between Monday and Friday. For people who regularly work on Saturdays, this logic can give the impression of having to "pay" for the public holiday themselves through overtime or by rearranging their week.

An employee quoted anonymously by 20 Minutes specifically denounces this situation, feeling they have to sacrifice overtime to celebrate 1st August. The media also indicates that, according to this employee, such a situation would not have occurred when Micasa was still part of the Migros group.

Micasa, for its part, explains having introduced its own time recording model after its detachment from the Migros group. The store claims that employees were involved in choosing the system and that the theoretical five-day working time should, in the coming years, prove slightly more favourable to staff than a model spread over six days. However, it acknowledges that the current system may be perceived as less fair in some cases for employees regularly active on Saturdays, and indicates it is examining a new working time and recording system that better takes individual schedules into account.

1st August is not a public holiday like the others

The legal core of the issue lies in the special status of the national holiday. According to information from the Confederation reproduced on the SME portal, 1st August is the only federal public holiday and is treated as a Sunday. The cantons can also designate up to eight other public holidays per year, also treated as Sundays.

This assimilation is not just a symbolic detail. Under the Federal Labour Law, Sunday work is generally prohibited, except for exceptions. Public holidays treated as Sundays are subject to the same logic: the employer cannot simply treat these days as ordinary business days, except for applicable exceptions or authorisations for certain activities.

Regarding remuneration, 1st August also occupies a special place. The research file recalls that it is the public holiday for which payment is mandatory under federal law, whereas the remuneration of cantonal public holidays depends more on contracts, internal regulations or applicable collective labour agreements. For a fiduciary or an HR service, this distinction is essential: not all public holidays are automatically treated the same way in payroll.

Interviewed by 20 Minutes, Roger Rudolph, professor of labour law at the University of Zurich, however, clarifies the issue from the perspective of the concrete schedule. According to him, payment for 1st August is required when it falls on a weekday when the employee was supposed to work. He therefore considers it unacceptable for employees to be reassigned to another day of the week on the orders of the hierarchy, as the fixed working days can no longer be unilaterally modified.

The real schedule weighs more than the theoretical model

For companies, the difficulty often arises when the theoretical contractual schedule does not perfectly reflect operational reality. A shop, a restaurant, a production workshop or a service company may operate with rotations, regular Saturdays, part-time work and fluctuating schedules. In this context, an abstract rule stating that the theoretical week runs from Monday to Friday can come into tension with the practice experienced by teams.

Roger Rudolph's reasoning, as reported by 20 Minutes, precisely emphasises this reality. For him, the important thing is not only that 1st August falls on a Saturday. It is necessary to examine whether the employee would have worked that day or is regularly called to work on those days in the case of variable schedules. If so, he believes there is a right to remuneration and the work should not be provided before or after.

This approach is particularly important for part-time work. The expert quoted by 20 Minutes indicates that part-time employees who sometimes work on Saturdays would be entitled to proportional payment for the public holiday. Conversely, employees who never work on Saturdays would not be entitled to a public holiday allowance for a 1st August falling on that day.

For an SME, this means that a time recording system cannot be designed solely to simplify administration. It must also allow for demonstrating what was planned, usual or regular for each employee. Validated schedules, rotating hours, employment contracts, amendments and internal rules then become determining pieces in case of discussion.

In payroll accounting, the error often materialises as an hours balance. If the public holiday is treated as an absence to be compensated, the employee may end up with a debit of hours or with the obligation to "fill" their week otherwise. If, on the contrary, the public holiday should have been paid without catch-up, the hours balance must remain neutral for the person concerned. The difference seems technical, but it directly influences remuneration, overtime, holidays and trust in the accounts.

Cantonal public holidays further complicate payroll

The Micasa case concerns 1st August, but it also reminds us of a well-known reality for fiduciaries: public holidays are not uniform in Switzerland. The cantons have leeway to designate additional public holidays, within the limit indicated by the Confederation. A company active in several cantons cannot therefore rely on a single calendar without verification.

The remuneration of these cantonal public holidays must be examined in light of the individual contract, staff regulations and, where applicable, the collective labour agreement. Some CLAs provide specific rules on public holidays, their payment or compensation. In sectors where schedules are irregular, these provisions can play a central role in avoiding unequal treatment.

When work is actually performed on a public holiday treated as a Sunday, the question changes again. It is no longer just about whether the day should be paid, but also whether the work was authorised and what compensation is due. The research file recalls that Sunday or holiday work may give rise to a right to compensatory rest or additional remuneration according to applicable legal and contractual provisions.

For employers, caution consists of separately addressing three questions: the right to work on that day, the right to salary for the public holiday, and then the possible compensation if work is performed. Mixing them into a single weekly hours calculation increases the risk of error.

What SMEs should review before the next calendar

The case illustrates a frequent weakness: working time rules designed to be simple can become difficult to defend when they encounter more varied real schedules. Before modifying hours balances or imposing a catch-up, an SME should check how working days are set, when the schedule becomes binding and what possibilities for unilateral modification are provided or not.

A useful check is to compare contracts with practice. If a contract mentions a schedule from Monday to Friday, but the employee regularly works on Saturdays, the company must clarify this discrepancy. If schedules change every week, it is necessary to document the planning rules, communication deadlines and how public holidays are credited. A fiduciary can help translate these rules into payroll and time recording software, to avoid opaque manual corrections.

It is also recommended to distinguish between categories of staff. Full-time employees with fixed schedules, part-time employees with regular days, auxiliaries and employees with fluctuating schedules do not pose the same questions. Mechanically applying an identical rule to everyone may seem fair over a year, but produce questionable effects in a specific case.

Finally, communication matters. In the Micasa case, the company acknowledges that the model may be perceived as less fair for some employees and says it is seeking a solution better suited to individual schedules. For an SME, this dimension is far from secondary: an incomprehensible hours balance quickly becomes a subject of conflict, even when the initial intention was administrative.

The catch-up of hours around 1st August shows that Swiss labour law often plays out in the details of schedules. Before asking an employee to make up for a public holiday, the employer should have the contract, the effectively planned schedule, the company's practice, the relevant canton and the possible CLA checked. This reflex costs less than a wage dispute and also secures the employment relationship.