Sickness Pay for Freelancers

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Morning

I have worked here for several large Agencies ib Switzerland. I have never asked if I was covered for Sickness Pay and never asked if I could recieve it if I was sick

Now as a Freelancer 15 days are being withheld

Can anyone advise me of the Swiss Law standing on this item

Do I or dont I have to accept it ? or Can I refuse it to be taken at source?

Thanks

fleminrs

2
Was there ever a written contract in place? Perhaps you need to check that.

If there is no written contract (only verbal), you could possibly refuse it to be taken at source. Might rock some boats within the Agency and they may not give you the best projects anymore ;-(

3
Are you asking if the company you are freelancing for should pay you when you are off sick? I think the benefit opf companies using freelancers is that it's hassle free employment, no sick pay holiday pay etc... hence why you charge more per day (as per contracting)

I work freelance in house at a company and would never expect them to pay sick pay but if you pay AHV (which you should be) then maybe you can contact them and get state sick pay, I've not needed to do this yet but I recently got 12 weeks maternity pay via the state (AHV) so maybe this is where you need to ask

4
Sickpay has been a grey area for some time here. Some agencies cover sickpay from their (quite hefty) deductions, but many contracts would state that you are paid a supplement (actually, from within your normal rate) to self insure yourself. There has been a move recently by some agencies to withold this and buy the insurance for you to ensure there is no chance of you reverting to making a claim against them.

I would say though that 15 days p.a. (I assume this is what you mean) sounds quite a high witholding for this. The agency I am with covers all 'staff' with a deduction of less than 2% of the gross daily rate, compare to approx. 6.5% (which 15 days represents in 230 day year). However, under this insurance we cannot claim for single day or 2-day sickness - at least 3 consecutive days must be taken and be backed up by a doctors certificate in order to make a claim. Check out what coverage your 15 day witholding gives - if it covers you for single days then maybe it is reasonable, as insuring this is expensive.

5
It is very difficult to understand exactly what you're asking, but I don't think companies are required to pay very much, if anything in the first year.

It is a very long time ago since I did contract work, but in those days the agencies used to offer to take out an additional sickness insurance for you, if you wanted. I used to take out one that kicked in after 60 day, it paid 8,000 per month for up to 2 years and cost around 1,400 per year.

Jim.

6
I thought usually sick leave is paid after 3 days at least 80% if you work on a contract - I am not sure what you mean by being a freelancer though. Also I am not sure if above practice is the required minimum by law or just common practice.

Your local RAV office may be a good starting point to look for someone to give you legal consulting on this - e.g. in Basel the authority that runs the RAV give free legal consulting on such questions. I could imagine that your canton has similar institutions.

All the best, lala