Schedules disrupted before a holiday: the HR risk

As a public holiday approaches, there is a temptation in some companies: to shift hours, intensify other days of the week, or draw from a balance of positive hours to neutralise the closure. For a Swiss SME, this reflex may seem pragmatic. However, it touches on a sensitive area: working time, rest, time recording and, ultimately, pay.

A case reported by evenement.ch concerning Micasa brought the subject back into the spotlight: employees were allegedly required to compensate for the closure on Saturday 1 August with overtime, the company citing its new time recording model. Beyond this particular case, the question concerns any employer planning teams around a holiday: how far can schedules be adapted without stripping the holiday of its essence?

The holiday cannot be erased from the schedule

The starting point is simple: a public holiday is not a neutral box in an Excel spreadsheet. In Switzerland, the framework for working time is notably governed by the Federal Act on Work in Industry, Crafts and Commerce. This law sets general safeguards, including a maximum weekly duration of 45 hours for workers employed in industrial enterprises, office staff, technicians and other employees, and 50 hours for other workers, according to Article 9 of the LTr. It also provides for a weekly rest period of at least 35 consecutive hours, including in principle Sunday, according to Article 21.

These limits do not answer all payroll or planning questions, but they provide the framework: work organisation is not free to the point of allowing any postponement. SECO also reminds us that work on public holidays is generally prohibited, except by derogation from the competent authority. For an SME, this means that a public holiday should not be treated as a simple gap to be automatically filled in the week.

The difficulty arises especially when schedules are variable: retail, catering, services, part-time teams, regular presence on Saturdays or alternating between several working days. If the employer opportunistically removes the holiday from the schedule and shifts all the hours to other days, the employee may feel that they never really benefit from the holiday. This is precisely what lawyer Marie Maillefer, from Unia Vaud, denounced in the evenement.ch article: the employer cannot reorganise schedules in the run-up to a holiday in such a way as to make the effect of the day off disappear.

The case of Saturday 1 August reveals a risk area

In the case mentioned by evenement.ch, the problem arose notably from the fact that the theoretical working time was recorded from Monday to Friday, while some shops were normally open on Saturday. Saturday 1 August, a public holiday, therefore fell on a day when employees could have been scheduled. According to the article, the system did not provide for a credit of hours or a reduction in the theoretical weekly time, which led to a request for compensation elsewhere in the week or to consume overtime.

For an SME management, the lesson is very concrete: the time recording model must follow operational reality, not the other way around. If a shop regularly opens on Saturdays, if teams rotate over several days, or if an employee has a contractual schedule that is not correctly read in the software, the risk of erroneous accounting increases. And this risk is not limited to the public holiday concerned. A poorly configured hourly base can also distort hour balances, absences, holidays or periods of illness.

1 August occupies a special place in this debate. The evenement.ch article reminds us that it is the only public holiday recognised nationwide and that even hourly-paid people must benefit from it, unlike cantonal public holidays, which only remunerate workers paid monthly or weekly according to the presentation made in this source. For an employer, this distinction requires careful verification of the person's status, their mode of remuneration and the canton concerned before deciding on a payroll case.

The Switzerland of cantons complicates pay and schedules

Another Swiss peculiarity: official public holidays are not uniform everywhere. The cantons designate them themselves. The research dossier cites, for example, the Geneva Fast, recognised as an official public holiday in the canton of Geneva. A company active in a single canton may already have to coordinate schedules, absences and contracts. For an SME present on several sites, with staff domiciled or assigned in different cantons, planning quickly becomes more delicate.

This cantonal diversity has direct implications for the fiduciary or HR department. It is not enough to load a standard list of public holidays into payroll software. It is necessary to check the place of activity, the rules applicable to the canton, any internal practices and, if applicable, contractual or conventional provisions. A Geneva branch and a Vaud site are not necessarily managed in the same way. The State of Vaud, for example, publishes specific information on working on public holidays in the canton, illustrating the need to refer to the competent authority.

The question also arises for mobile teams: technicians, salespeople, staff seconded to a site, employees in partial telework. The right reflex is to document in advance the logic applied: which public holiday calendar is used, for which function, on which site, and with what impact on the time due. Without this documentation, a correction of a few hours can turn into a recurring discussion, or even a conflict.

When time software becomes a source of dispute

Time stamping and management systems are useful, but they do not replace legal and HR analysis. In the evenement.ch article, the Unia lawyer reminds us that work must be recorded and that this recording must correspond to reality. The problem arises when the employer responds that they cannot do otherwise because the computer tool imposes a certain calculation mechanism.

For an SME, this is a warning signal. Poorly configured software can create artificial balances, debit overtime without a clear basis or display a theoretical time that does not correspond to the actual schedules practised. However, when an employee disputes their balance, the company must be able to explain the accounting. If no one understands the rules set in the tool, the discussion becomes difficult, including for the fiduciary called to correct the payroll.

It is therefore prudent to test atypical cases before sensitive periods: public holiday falling on a Saturday, part-time employee, irregular schedule, team that usually works on the day concerned, hourly-paid employee, or accumulation with overtime. This work seems administrative, but it protects the company's margin: a repeated error on several employees can cost more than a preventive check, not to mention the time spent reconstructing balances afterwards.

The hidden cost of poorly explained compensation

Changing schedules before a public holiday is not just a matter of compliance. It touches on trust. When an employee sees overtime disappear because a shop closes on a holiday, they may see it as a loss of deferred remuneration or a reduction of rights. Even if the employer's intention is to maintain an efficient organisation, the HR effect can be negative.

For managers, the right approach is to anticipate rather than tinker with the holiday week. This involves comparing the usual schedule and the modified schedule, identifying who would normally have worked, checking the limits of working time and rest, then deciding on the treatment in the payroll. If the company really plans to have staff work on a public holiday, it must examine the need for a derogation from the competent cantonal authority, as recalled by the information from SECO and the cantons.

Communication also plays a central role. An internal note that only explains how the recording system works is not always enough. Employees need to understand why their schedule changes, how time is accounted for and what the impact will be on their balance. In case of doubt, it is better to formalise the analysis and keep the elements: initial schedule, adapted schedule, rules applied, internal validation and exchanges with the authority if authorisation is necessary.

For a fiduciary, this is an opportunity to play a watchdog role. It can help identify inconsistencies between contracts, theoretical schedules and actual stamping; check hour balances before payroll closure; draw attention to cantonal differences; and recommend a review of software parameters. It does not replace legal advice when the situation is contentious, but it can prevent the problem from appearing only after payroll.

Public holidays highlight a broader reality: the flexibility of work in Switzerland requires rigour. Adapting schedules remains possible in many organisations, but not at the cost of an automatic erasure of the planned rest. For an SME, the guideline is clear: plan early, document the rules, check the canton and salary status, then have sensitive cases confirmed before a simple holiday becomes an HR file.