Six Months' Pay: What Swiss Law Allows When Workplace Bullying Goes Unchecked
Published on 09/25/2026 at 00:00 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Switzerland's highest court has a working definition of mobbing: hostile behaviour that is systematic and sustained over time. The trouble is that getting from ordinary friction with a colleague to that point rarely happens overnight, which is why employment lawyers say the paper trail matters as much as the grievance itself.
SRF Espresso, the consumer programme, reported on 24 September 2026 on how employees should handle the slide from interpersonal tension into something more damaging.
Facts first, feelings second
Advisers recommend raising the problem early and keeping it matter-of-fact. The discipline they stress is separating what actually happened from how it was read. If a spoken conversation goes nowhere, the next step is to put the exchange in writing and keep a record of it.
Bringing in a manager is the logical follow-up, since employers carry a statutory duty of care towards their staff. When a supervisor either fails to respond properly or is the source of the behaviour, employees can turn to neutral internal channels, professional associations or outside counselling services. Where the psychological strain becomes an acute health risk, a doctor's note may be the necessary next move.
Keep the evidence, even after the contract ends
Proving a case depends on documentation. Incidents should be logged without gaps, and those records should be preserved and secured even if the employee is later dismissed. Should the dispute end in an unlawful termination, a claim for compensation of up to six months' wages can be pursued in court.
The wider cost of letting conflicts escalate is both financial and medical. Speaking at an NZZ Live event in Zurich on 15 September 2026, Roman Sonderegger, chief executive of the health insurer Helsana, put the annual price of mental health problems in the Swiss workplace at roughly 6.5 billion francs.
Spending on psychotherapy has risen 11 per cent compared with the previous year. According to Helsana, an absence caused by psychological illness lasts an average of 150 days; 60 per cent of those affected are women and 40 per cent men. Among 16- to 25-year-olds, one in five reports moderate to severe symptoms of depression.
Conflict sits behind many sick notes
Cosima Dorsemagen of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland said on 15 September 2026 that more than half of all sick notes issued for psychological reasons are directly linked to conflicts at work. Helsana's Sonderegger added that around 50 per cent of long-term absentees can, on average, be reintegrated into the workforce.
Given that scale, the advice to employees is to treat early warning signs among colleagues seriously and to make use of workplace or external support before a situation hardens.
