Working hours, holidays and childcare during emergency operations

ETH Zurich was able to react swiftly and decisively when switching to emergency operations. For instance, the university immediately announced that working time would be credited to employees who are barred from being on site at ETH but unable to work from home. Similarly, time spent on childcare also counted as paid working time during the first few weeks. The Executive Board recommended that holidays be taken as planned and that accrued overtime hours should be reduced during the emergency operation period.

Now the challenge is to plan the rest of the year, ensuring that ETH can continue operating with sufficient staff once the current remote working regulations are able to be slowly loosened. For this reason, the Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership a.i. has approved a new regulation on working hours, holidays and childcare as of 7 April.

Taking holidays

The general rule is that employees should plan to take their holidays in 2020 and use the holiday time they have accrued in 2020 before the end of the year. Employees should plan their holidays in consultation with their supervisors, and holidays are to be taken on a pro rata basis by the end of August. This means that someone who works full time and has 25 days of holiday allowance should have taken 16 days off by the end of this August. Accrued holiday time from the previous year is also to be taken by the end of August.

In cases of increased workloads during emergency operations and limited opportunity to take holiday, it may be possible to carry over some holiday allowance to 2021 with the approval of one¡¯s supervisor.

Working hours and working from home

Employees required to record their working time may not exceed their usual target working hours. Overtime, working more than the legally regulated hours and extra work can only be recorded if mandated or approved by a supervisor.
If an employee required to record their working time cannot work from home or their workload has decreased, the actual working hours are entered, and any previously accrued time balance (overtime, work beyond the legally regulated hours, extra work) must be reduced. It is now possible to record up to 50 hours of undertime for this year.

For employees not required to record their working time, working from home will be treated as normal working hours (target working hours), regardless of whether efficiency or effectiveness is limited.

Childcare

Parents who are able to work from home and who mostly have a full workload can record their daily target working hours, even if they effectively work a fewer number of hours due to childcare duties.

Parents whose work is greatly restricted due to their childcare duties can be granted 10 additional days (for full-time employees) of paid leave in accordance with the hardship guidelines. A justification as well as approval by the supervisor in coordination with the personnel manager are required.

Background information

In addition to the basic guidelines outlined here, the new HR regulations contain a number of detailed provisions. Download The regulation is legally binding and can be found in the ETH Legal Collection.