The first thing is to find out whether your employer has to continue paying your salary under the terms of your employment contract. Continued payment of salary is something that has to be assessed by you and your employer. In the event of dispute a court would probably have to decide. An employer is obliged to continue paying your salary in two cases:
- If your employer sends you to work in a state or area with a variant of concern and you have to go into quarantine on your return to Switzerland.
- If you can work despite being in quarantine, in other words from home.
If you cannot work because of quarantine for people entering Switzerland and your employer does not continue paying you, the following applies:
- You are entitled to compensation for loss of earnings due to coronavirus if you have to go into quarantine through no fault of your own. This means that at the time of your departure your destination was not on the list of states and areas with a variant of concern, and at the time of your departure there was no way you could know on the basis of an official announcement that your destination would be put on the list during your travel.
- This means that you are not entitled to compensation if your destination was already on the list of states and areas with a variant of concern at the time of your departure.
Payment of compensation for loss of earnings due to the coronavirus crisis runs via the OASI (AHV/AVS) compensation offices. You’ll find more information on the OASI/DI Information Centre website and the Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO) website (German, French and Italian).