How do I insure my cleaner?

1. Illegally employing staff may have financial consequences

A cleaner makes your life easier – but only if you have a proper employment contract. Otherwise, you may get into trouble. In particular, you may have to cover the financial costs of an accident if you have employed staff illegally. Therefore, make sure you fulfil your social security obligations and take out compulsory accident insurance.

2. Simplified payment procedure for social security contributions

When you hire domestic help, you become a private employer. As such, your obligations go beyond the mere payment of wages. You must register household staff for OASI/DI (Old Age and Survivors’ Insurance/Disability Insurance, also known as pillar 1) and pay compulsory social security contributions using the simplified payment procedure. This procedure is possible for annual wages of up to 21,510 francs (as of 2022).

This ensures that you make the compulsory pillar 1 contributions covering pensions, disability and unemployment, as well as any relevant contributions to the Family Allowances Office. If you do not register for OASI/DI and you are found guilty of it by a court, you must pay all the missing social security contributions with a 50% surcharge.

3. How do I insure my cleaner against accidents?

In addition to paying social security contributions, you must also take out compulsory accident insurance. Even if your domestic help only works for a few hours a month, as an employer, you have to take out occupational accident insurance. You can do this with any approved accident insurance provider. Suva is the only exception here. The premium will cost you about 100 francs per year.

If your cleaner works eight hours per week or more, you must also insure them against non-occupational accidents. Your cleaner must pay the premiums for this insurance.

4. Accident insurance through a supplementary insurance fund

If you do not take out an accident insurance policy, the supplementary insurance fund will provide the statutory insurance benefits for your household staff following an accident. However, you will face various legal consequences as a result (link not available in English):

• Back payment of the premiums due for the working period or for a maximum of five years

• Doubling of the amount due if you have not complied with the obligation to obtain insurance in an inexcusable manner

• Increase in the supplementary premium of up to three to ten times the amount of the premium for repeat offenders

• Charging of default interest

It goes without saying that you are not allowed to deduct these supplementary premiums from your staff’s salaries.

5. Without an employment contract, the standard employment contract applies instead of the Swiss Code of Obligations

But that is not where the legal consequences end. Without a valid employment contract and depending on the canton, a cantonal standard employment contract may apply instead of the Swiss Code of Obligations (link not available in English). This contract contains significantly stricter conditions. For example, some cantons also force employers to take out daily sickness benefit insurance or to pay the corresponding wage loss costs after an accident.

6. Cleaners can sue employers

Finally, as an employer, you can also be sued by your cleaner after an accident or in the event of a serious illness. You may then have to pay a high level of compensation.

7. Companies for administration

Do you only employ one cleaner for a few hours per month? In this case, this knowledge and the guidance of the Confederation (not available in English) will come in handy. If you have several employees (e.g. cleaning assistant, gardener, childcare) and a simplified billing procedure is not possible, or in the case of more complicated circumstances involving withholding tax, child allowances, BVG obligation, etc., the involvement of a service provider for administrative processing may be worthwhile. In German-speaking Switzerland, these include companies such as Quitt and Fairboss. In French-speaking Switzerland, Chèque-emploi offers such services.