Employment law translation. From employment contract to employment reference

A company hires in Zurich, Lausanne and Lugano. Contracts, amendments, notices of termination and references must say the same thing everywhere. Corrext uses the vocabulary of the Code of Obligations.

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Each term, in the official text

Highlight an employment law term: CHnell shows its German version in the same official text, with its source.

résiliation immédiateFrenchGerman18 results

IV. Résiliation immédiate

IV. Fristlose Auflösung

SR-220 OR-CO-CO-CO - Source: fedlex.admin.ch - Data Set: Neur.on

Si la FINMA a contrevenu aux dispositions sur les délais de résiliation ou qu’elle a prononcé une résiliation immédiate en l’absence de justes motifs, le collaborateur a droit au maintien du salaire jusqu’à l’échéance du délai de résiliation ordinaire ou du contrat de travail à durée déterminée.

Hat die FINMA Vorschriften über die Kündigungsfristen verletzt oder fehlen im Fall einer von ihr ausgesprochenen fristlosen Kündigung wichtige Gründe, so haben die Mitarbeitenden Anspruch auf Fortzahlung des Lohnes bis zum Ablauf der ordentlichen Kündigungsfrist oder des befristeten Anstellungsvertrages.

SR-956.121 Ordonnance-du-11-août-2008-sur-le-personnel-de-lAutorité-fédérale-de-surveillan - Source: fedlex.admin.ch - Data Set: Neur.on

b. ordonner le maintien du salaire jusqu’au terme du délai ordinaire de résiliation ou du contrat de travail à durée déterminée en cas de résiliation immédiate sans de justes motifs;

b. die Fortzahlung des Lohnes bis zum Ablauf der ordentlichen Kündigungsfrist oder des befristeten Arbeitsvertrags anordnen, wenn im Fall einer fristlosen Kündigung wichtige Gründe fehlen;

SR-732.221 Personalreglement-vom-17.-Oktober-2008-des-Eidgenössischen-Nuklearsicherheitsin - Source: fedlex.admin.ch - Data Set: Neur.on

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Employment vocabulary, in all four languages

The three ways of ending a contract have distinct names in the three official versions of the Code of Obligations. Confusing them in a translated letter can make the termination invalid. The English column uses the translation published by the Confederation on Fedlex where there is one, which has no legal force, and common usage otherwise.

German	French	Italian	English	Reference
Einzelarbeitsvertrag	contrat individuel de travail	contratto individuale di lavoro	individual employment contract	art. 319 CO
Überstundenarbeit	heures de travail supplémentaires	lavoro straordinario	overtime	art. 321c CO
Zeugnis	certificat	attestato	reference	art. 330a CO
Kündigung	congé	disdetta	termination	art. 335 CO
missbräuchliche Kündigung	résiliation abusive	disdetta abusiva	wrongful termination	art. 336 CO
fristlose Auflösung	résiliation immédiate	risoluzione immediata	termination with immediate effect	art. 337 CO
Konkurrenzverbot	prohibition de faire concurrence	divieto di concorrenza	prohibition of competition	art. 340 CO
Gesamtarbeitsvertrag	convention collective de travail	contratto collettivo di lavoro	collective employment contract	art. 356 CO

Equivalents taken from official Swiss texts, published in German, French and Italian. In Corrext, each term opens in context in Fast lookup CHnell, with its source.

The acts an employment contract cites every day

Swiss employment law is split between a contractual part, in the Code of Obligations, and a regulatory part, in the Employment Act. Personnel data and permits fall under yet other acts.

Code of Obligations (CO)

DEORFR · ITCO

From Article 319 onwards, it governs the individual employment contract, termination, the employment reference and the collective employment contract

ArG

Employment Act

FRLTr

It sets working hours, rest periods and health protection

FNIA

Federal Act on Foreign Nationals and Integration

DEAIGFRLEI

It sets the conditions for employing foreign staff and for residence and work permits

FADP

Federal Act on Data Protection

DEDSGFR · ITLPD

It governs the employer's processing of personnel data

Translating an HR document, in practice

Swiss employment law translation covers documents that frame a lasting relationship: individual employment contract, staff regulations, amendments, termination, reference. The concepts come from the Code of Obligations and the Employment Act, published in German, French and Italian. The wording chosen can decide whether a notice of termination is valid.

HR documents

Staff regulations
Staff regulations apply at every site. Their translation must be identical in Zurich, Lausanne and Lugano, revision after revision.
Termination letter
The wording of a notice of termination can be challenged in court. A Full review by a legal translator checks it before it is sent.
Non-compete clause
The prohibition of competition has a precise legal definition. Its translation cannot be left to everyday usage.
Foreign employees
Documents relating to work permits fall under another act, the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act, with its own vocabulary.

What Corrext brings to this area

Individual employment contract

Standard contracts change little from one employee to the next. The translation memory makes each new hire almost immediate.

Reference

A Swiss employment reference (Arbeitszeugnis) follows established formulas. The concordancer lets you check the exact meaning of a phrase before you reuse it.

Collective employment contract

Collective employment contracts exist in several official languages. Their terms can be checked in context in the Employment & Social Ins. domain.

Personnel data

An HR file contains personal data. Highly sensitive content mode requires storage and processing in Switzerland only.

Three HR documents that circulate in several languages

Hiring

One standard contract for three sites

The standard contract is approved at head office, then signed in three language regions. The translation memory makes each version immediate, and only the genuinely new clauses go back to a legal translator.

End of employment

A termination without errors

Ordinary termination, wrongful termination and termination with immediate effect are not worded the same way, and the letter may be produced in court. A Full review checks the wording before sending, with the delivery time shown in advance.

Departure

A reference to draft

A reference follows established formulas whose meaning recruiters know well. The concordancer shows these phrases in context, so that a literal translation does not change the message.

Frequently asked questions on employment law translation

Does an employment contract have to be in the employee's language?

The law does not require a particular language for the individual employment contract. But an employer who wants the commitment understood and enforceable has every interest in providing a version in the employee's working language. The platform's four languages (German, French, Italian and English) cover this need.

How do I translate a termination letter safely?

Distinguish the three regimes of the Code of Obligations: ordinary termination, wrongful termination and termination with immediate effect for good cause. The official terms exist in all three languages, and the letter itself justifies a Full review by a legal translator before it is sent.

Can personnel files go through the platform?

Yes, with the right mode. Storage is in Switzerland in every case, and Highly sensitive content mode requires processing in Switzerland only, with no reuse of the content in a translation memory. Before anything is sent, engines hosted abroad display the Attorney-Client privilege notice, which reminds users of your organisation's policy.

How do I keep staff regulations identical at every site?

With the translation memory, which limits the work to the passages changed in a revision. And with terminology resources that belong to your organisation, which Fast lookup CHnell shows on top of its 30 sourced domains. Each term opens in context with its source before you fix it.

Are collective employment contracts covered?

Their vocabulary falls within the Employment & Social Ins. domain of the concordancer, with official sources. Each term opens in context with its reference, so you can check a concept before using it in a contract or in staff regulations.

Can I quickly translate a simple internal memo?

Yes. Text translation, in Text and document translation, accepts up to 10,000 pasted characters, with a choice of engine and up to four alternative wordings. For internal communication, a Light review is usually enough. For a document handed to an employee that might be produced later, a Full review is the safer choice.