Here is the thinkg, his LM has NO responsibility towards him in respect of this. He is an employee of the agency, it is there responsibility and you should be in contact with them, to make sure this works out.
2 Likes
Only from my experience,
a) It may take some weeks or even up to a month or two to get insurance payments - insurance also needs time to get paperwork from you/OH, office, and also do their own paperwork, etc before payment is made.
b) As a courtesy, if you proactively inform the ‘creditors’ (including your rental agency) of your situation (at a high level) and that you are expecting payment from insurance with will take a bit of time, these organizations, will appreciate it, generally tend to be compassionate, supportive, patient and willing to work with you. They also know how things work in CH and appx amount of time necessary. Some may even forego late/reminder fees, interest, etc.
As @bob said, it would be best to contact, inform and work with HR of the company. The LM only has responsibility to inform HR and HR (usually) is the dept that deals with employee related issues. The LM is often included, but not always.
LMs usually deal with the company side of things and HR deals with the people related things.
2 Likes
Again thanks for all your comments and advice, it’s much appreciated 
I am in contact with his agency and the payroll company they use, this has not been easy as they’re in India (and their level of English isn’t that good). There is one person in Zurich and his LM has shared my details with him.
The situation isn’t straightforward, as he is a retiree who has onboarded back with the company.
His contract had certain terms and conditions written into it and there was a lot of negotiation over a period of 5 months as the agency offered him terms he wasn’t happy with (for instance they offered him a much lower daily rate than the one agreed on and they wanted to pay in Euros so he said thanks but no thanks).
His ex employers were involved in the negotiations, this is why I contacted his LM and another manager above.
Both have contacted me today to say they’d like to visit him in hospital (they’re personal friends as well as colleagues), but I’ve asked them to hold off until I have spoken with his Consultant Neurologist next week.
I’m not so concerned about the insurance after being told the hospital social work team will assist with this, I’ve been told they will be in contact with me early next week as they also sort out all the stuff like medical certificates etc. I now know I have other funds I can draw on if necessary.
7 Likes
OH is doing well with his rehab and is starting to get movement back into his arm, so that’s a positive. He’s making reasonably sensible conversation, albeit a bit rambling and repetitive at times, he also forgets some words and has pretty much forgotten everything he’s learned in German.
The negative is he’s picked up bacterial E-Coli, the type that’s resistant to antibiotics.
This means he has to be a in a room on his own, he can’t have contact or meals with other patients etc, but he can be taken outside and and can have visitors (work colleagues and guys from snooker are visiting in the evenings). A real shame as before this happened I was able to take him to the café for coffee. I’m not allowed to launder his clothes, the hospital are handling this.
His snooker buddies sent him a video message from professional player Sean Murphy today which really cheered him up.
The police would obviously like to talk to him, but again his doctor at the rehab facility has said no, he’s not well enough and has no recollection. The E-Coli situation means he could be there for months, as I understand it he has to have 3 negative tests after 3 months.
Sounds like I’m in this for the long haul, but hey, I’ve already been around for nearly 42 years 
12 Likes
Cherub, so sorry for this setback. Be kind to yourself, and bi làidir! **
** Scots Gaelic for stay strong
It is the same in Irish “bi làidir”
1 Like
The reason the Police want to talk s they don’t have enough or any evidence against him. When he goes for an interview answering no comment to every question is likely the best strategy.
A lorry backed into me & I got a fine from a judge, I appealed & went to court. The police had made false claims, they even got my date of birth wrong, so it’s much easier to contest after the event than give them your side of the story first.
3 Likes
Thanks for that info.
1 Like
Were the Police held accountable for their dishonesty?
No idea, I doubt it as Swiss people never make mistakes. No doubt a misunderstanding 
2 Likes
I shouldn’t laugh, but I spoke to OH on FT today and his hair made him look like Bert from Sesame Street 
Good news is his Consultant Neurologist has approved for him to have a laptop (he’s very bored now and playing games like chess with one of his rehab team) and as he is greatly improved there’s to be a meeting to discuss whether he can be moved to another part of the hospital. He’s no longer the high dependency case he was and is starting to find some of the other patients distressing. One man was expected to die in the early hours of Tuesday morning and had all his family there but thankfully he pulled through. Another new patient is a lady who screams all the time, a nurse sits with her during the night. There’s also a man in a wheelchair who thinks OH’s room is his in his state of confusion, so the nurses advise him to keep his door closed.
The left side of his face is much better, it seems when he fell he fractured a small facial bone.
I’m really chuffed with his progress, but the doctors have said the thing that’s going to keep him in there is the bacterial e-coli issue.
The agency he is contracting via sent him an email to ask for his March timesheet, they’re in India and pretty clueless. Unbelievable that the global Swiss outfit he onboarded back with would use a company with such a poor reputation, but at the end of the day they’re cheap.
11 Likes
One time I worked for such, and they used a crap Indian company.
I was the liaison, but their service was worse than usual.
I put some pressure on their salesman and found out they had, in turn, outsourced to a Vietnamese company.
I gave up at that point before I found out something worse, like the Vietnamese company had outsourced to N. Korea
3 Likes
OH has been fined 950 francs. One of his colleagues had a bike accident 2 years ago and very nearly lost a lower leg, he got fined 750 for the privilege.
It is one of the more strange aspects of living here - hopefully you can just forget about it
Sorry about that. It’s all you need with everything else you have going on.
I don’t understand how they can fine him though (or decide the amount) if they don’t know the full details of what happened and your OH can’t remember either.
That’s the plan, he said yesterday he just going to stump up and be done with it.
2 Likes
It seems about 500 of it relates to them having to get an ambulance to take him to hospital, and some of the fine is for the police locking the bike up (which has been stolen anyway).
I still think it’s very strange this happened at one of the busiest junctions in Basel city centre yet the police say no witnesses.
that’s the very best approach - you have bigger fish to fry
1 Like
OK, so charges for provided services and not actually a fine for falling off?
I’m not really interested tbh, I just want to get it paid in the next 30 days.
It’s possible he’s going to be moved to another part of the hospital soon so I’m more concerned with that. He’s no longer high dependency like the others where he is at the moment. There’s also a new patient who’s non verbal and she screams the place down to communicate so he’s finding it a bit distressing. He feels really sorry for her as she needs a nurse with her all during the night. There’s also a confused man in a wheelchair who keeps wandering into his room as he thinks it’s his and he has to summon a nurse to escort him to his own room.