Dismissed or Facing Job Cuts: Your Rights, the Social Plan and the First 30 Days

The news rarely comes as a surprise and still hits hard: a meeting with HR, a letter, a "restructuring programme" on the intranet. 2026 is the year of announced job cuts — UBS up to 3,000 positions, Helvetia Baloise up to 2,600, Kühne+Nagel over 2,000, Novartis around 550 in Stein — and the market beneath them has thinned out: between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, according to the FSO, only 13,850 full-time positions were added net, the lowest figure in five years. What you need in this situation is not reassurance but a sequence: which rights are in the Code of Obligations, which deadlines are running, and what you do in the first 30 days so that the notice period does not turn into a waiting period.

Step 1: Is the dismissal even valid?

Before you plan anything, check three things — each of them can postpone or overturn the dismissal.

The notice period. After the probation period, the statutory periods of CO 335c apply: one month in the first year of service, two months from the second up to and including the ninth, three months from the tenth — always to the end of a month. Your employment contract or a collective labour agreement may provide for longer periods; shorter than one month only a collective labour agreement, and only in the first year of service. During probation it is seven days to any day (CO 335b). A dismissal given on 20 September "as of the end of September" runs, with a two-month notice period, until the end of November — not the end of October.

The protection period. If on the day of the dismissal you are fully or partially unable to work due to illness or accident, the dismissal is void — it does not legally exist and must be given anew after the protection period. The protection period lasts 30 days in the first year of service, 90 days from the second to the fifth, 180 days from the sixth (CO 336c). The same applies during pregnancy and for 16 weeks after the birth, during military and civilian service of more than eleven days (four weeks before and after) and during a care leave. If you fall ill after the dismissal, the notice period is interrupted and continues after your recovery. Protection periods apply only after the probation period and only to dismissals by the employer.

Abuse. A dismissal because of your personality, your union membership or because you asserted claims under your employment contract is abusive (CO 336) — it is valid, but costs the employer up to six months' salary in compensation. In the context of job cuts a second variant matters: a dismissal as part of a collective redundancy without the prescribed consultation is likewise abusive — here, though, the compensation is capped at two months' salary (CO 336a para. 3). A double deadline applies to both: written objection to the employer by the end of the notice period, legal action within 180 days after the end of the employment relationship (CO 336b). Miss the objection and you lose the claim.

Step 2: Collective redundancy and social plan — what the employer must do

"Job cuts" is communication. "Collective redundancy" is a legal term with consequences, and the thresholds in CO 335d are lower than many think:

What counts are dismissals for reasons unrelated to the person — in other words, exactly the job cuts. Dismissals staggered over time that rest on the same decision are added together (CO 335i para. 2); a reduction in three tranches of 12 positions is a collective redundancy of 36. Bankruptcy and composition proceedings are excluded.

If a collective redundancy exists, a fixed procedure applies that you can check:

1. Consultation (CO 335f): the employer must hear the employee representation — or, if there is none, the employees directly — and give them the opportunity to make proposals on how dismissals can be avoided, reduced or mitigated. In writing, the employer must state: the reasons, the number of planned dismissals, the number of employees and the period. The canton of Basel-Stadt cites as practice a consultation period of at least five working days in small establishments, two to four weeks in larger ones. A dismissal given before the consultation is concluded is abusive (see above).
2. Notification to the cantonal employment office (CO 335g), with a copy to the employee representation. The employment relationship ends at the earliest 30 days after this notification — even if your notice period would actually expire earlier. A later contractual date still applies.
3. Social plan (CO 335h–335k): from 250 employees and 30 dismissals the employer must negotiate with the union or the employee representation; if no agreement is reached, an arbitration tribunal decides with binding effect. The law does not prescribe the content — only the purpose: avoid dismissals, limit them, mitigate their consequences, without endangering the business.

Step 3: What you are entitled to during the notice period

Employment reference — now, not on your last day. You can demand a reference at any time (CO 330a), so an interim reference immediately after the dismissal as well. That has two advantages: you apply during the notice period with an up-to-date reference, and you have a template the final reference may not fall short of. Read it with the reference-codes article beside you — in waves of job cuts, references are often written in series, and serial phrasing is rarely the good kind.

Time for the job search. After the dismissal the employer must grant you "the time necessary to look for another position" (CO 329 para. 3). There is no statutory measure; in practice half a day a week is often cited. Interviews during working hours are therefore not a favour but an entitlement — announce them instead of hiding them.

Garden leave. If the employer puts you on garden leave, your salary continues until the end of the notice period — garden leave is a waiver of your work, not of their payment. According to the Federal Supreme Court, holiday may be offset if it does not amount to more than about a third of the garden-leave period; overtime only with your consent (sozialinfo.ch). And: garden leave does not mean unemployed. For the RAV you are employed until the last day of the notice period — with all the obligations that now follow.

Step 4: The obligations that already run during the notice period

The most expensive misconception in this phase is that unemployment insurance only starts on the first day without a job. The Federal Supreme Court is unambiguous: insured persons under notice must already do everything reasonable during the notice period to avoid or shorten unemployment (BGE 139 V 524, Art. 17 AVIG). The canton of Aargau phrases it as an instruction: start your job search on the first day of the notice period and document your efforts. Anyone who turns up empty-handed at the first RAV meeting risks benefit suspension days for insufficient efforts before unemployment — 1 to 15 days for minor fault, 16 to 30 for moderate fault.

How many applications it takes varies by canton — Bern names at least eight a month, St. Gallen twelve — and is agreed with your counsellor. The rules on proof of job-search efforts apply from the day of the dismissal, not from the first daily allowance.

Then there is the registration itself: at the latest on the first day of unemployment, retroactively is not possible — but it is possible and recommended during the notice period. arbeit.swiss says it directly: "Don't wait until your last day of work." Registering early gets you counselling, courses and placement proposals before you need them, and it prevents the gap between last salary and first daily allowance that waiting days create anyway.

The 30-day plan for the notice period

The notice period is the best application phase you will ever have: you have an income, an up-to-date reference, a legitimate reason to be applying, and the question "Why are you looking?" answers itself in one word. In a market where up to 50 percent more applications per ad come in, that head start is valuable. Here is how to use it:

Week 1 — Secure. Have the dismissal confirmed in writing, check notice and protection periods, demand an interim reference, have the termination agreement (if offered) reviewed, ask in writing about a social plan or outplacement. Save all documents privately — contracts, salary statements, references, job-cut communications — while you still have access.

Week 2 — Become application-ready. Bring your CV up to the standard Switzerland expects, with the departure named clearly ("job cuts following restructuring", one sentence, not an apology). Have references and diplomas ready as a complete dossier. Pre-register with the RAV. Inform your network — not with a mass email, but with ten personal messages.

Weeks 3–4 — Apply and document. The cantonal quota as a minimum, but every application tailored, because the RAV will later read that same list. Record every application with date, company, position, contact, status. Announce interviews during working hours (CO 329 para. 3). If you are over 50, also read the article on job search over 50 — the cuts hit this group disproportionately, and the strategy is a different one.

Where preparAItor Fits

You get your rights from your union, your legal-protection insurer and the canton. The application work in the 30 to 90 days of the notice period is the part you carry yourself — and that is where preparAItor takes away the time you don't have:

• CV Health Check: the CV after ten years in the same company has typical gaps — the check shows them before the first recruiter sees them
• Complete dossier per ad: tailored CV, letter with company research, email — ten tailored applications a month alongside a job that is still running
• Interview training with the departure question: practise "Why were you let go?" in a safe setting until the answer is one sentence
• Tracker as proof: the list the RAV wants on the 5th of the month grows out of the applications you make anyway

Sources

• Fedlex – Code of Obligations (CO), Art. 329, 330a, 335b–335k, 336–336c
• SECO – FAQ on dismissal
• SECO – FAQ on employment references
• Canton of Basel-Stadt – Collective redundancies: procedure and obligations
• Canton of Zurich – Collective redundancies and business closures
• Canton of Aargau – Dismissed: what now?
• Canton of Bern – RAV/ALK FAQ (termination agreement, applications per month)
• Federal Supreme Court – BGE 139 V 524 (job-search efforts during the notice period)
• arbeit.swiss – Registering with the RAV
• arbeit.swiss – First steps after dismissal
• sozialinfo.ch – Dismissal with garden leave: may holiday and overtime be offset?
• Novartis – Media release on the Stein site (25.11.2025)
• nau.ch – Wave of dismissals: how bad is the Swiss labour market?
• watson – These Swiss sectors are losing numerous jobs
• SECO – The labour market situation, July 2026