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Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

swissinfo.ch

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Re: Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

#51

Post by [deleted] »

ryneandal wrote: post #31
codegeek wrote: post #26

Everytime I see "must pay", it scares me. Yes I know that employees get exploited etc but instead of making employers pay, why not let employees get a tax deduction or even a credit ? As an employer, I can tell you that the burden of employer paying for everything is not necessarily a good idea. It is not about the money only but also about the added overhead/red tape. In US, I am already sick of for example health i…

Yes on the healthcare thing. Decouple insurance from employers completely.

[deleted]

Re: Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

#52

Post by marcinzm »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #35
antr wrote: post #20

Thought: - Companies that now realised that remote schemes works for them, will push for that scheme to remain, with the aim of reducing their fixed costs (office rent, utilities, insurance, etc). - This eliminates a big chunk of fixed costs... as most are shifted to the employees. - If authorities/employees start demanding that part of those costs are covered by the company, companies will push to get avoid work-fro…

> I'm sure that there are other unintended consequences, such as higher rents, but who knows. For Amazon's reputation for internal cost-cutting (such as displaying the pricing on computer peripherals in vending-machines in their SLU offices), Amazon makes me scratch my head for building-up their HQ in one of the most expensive cities to buy land in the world - ditto Facebook in Menlo Park. Why didn't Amazon choose Ke…

>Given Facebook's propensity to attract and hire young twentysomethings then surely their exact location in the Bay Area is immaterial

Twenty somethings are the exact group of people who don't want to live in a socially dead place. And except for recent college grads even twenty somethings will have significant others who won't want to suddenly move to somewhere else. It's why startups keep being created in SF which has the worst costs out there.

Re: Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

#53

Post by dependenttypes »

Pfhreak wrote: post #47
dependenttypes wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should I be forced by the courts to pay for the tools of my plumber in addition to the agreed wage? Anyway, it would make more sense to pay for a percentage of the transportation/time spent travelling of the workers rather than for housing costs - not only it would incentivise companies to enforce work from home but it would also be more fair to the employees. After all the employees would have a home regardless but…

Your plumber is not an employee. Your plumber should be paying for the tools of their employees, yes. If you are an independent contractor, a company should pay your rate. If you are an employee the company should pay for the equipment needed for the job.

I would argue that there should be no employees and only independent contractors but this is going to be kind of offtopic for this thread.

Re: Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

#54

Post by mehrdadn »

gbear605 wrote: post #49
mehrdadn wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wait, is this "rent" in the sense of the company essentially renting part of the worker's home? I read it as as paying the worker's share of the rent to the landlord! If that's the case then that would make a lot more sense.

What’s the financial difference between those two?

The intent and justification is what's different.

Re: Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

#55

Post by petercooper »

I'd be quite happy to do that actually. At least there's a quid pro quo then and it's a nice way to give employees money tax free for the long term. Instead I gave all employees a £500 lockdown bonus to cover their extra electricity, gas, etc. (the UK tax system only lets employees claim £6/week as an expense for WFH which I think is a serious piss-take).

Re: Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

#56

Post by Pfhreak »

phkahler wrote: post #17
buro9 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what this is. This is: Your employer should provide the means for you to do the work they ask of you.

That's not what it is either. As a person in the US where "health insurance" is so tangled up with employers I can tell you, the last thing anyone should want is more financial entanglements between employees and employers.

Health insurance is a benefit, paying for equipment necessary to do the job isn't.

I agree that health care shouldn't be tied to employment, but saying a company shouldn't buy you e.g. a laptop, desk, chair, and space to work seems wild to me.

Re: Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

#58

Post by lr4444lr »

This makes no sense to me. Why not just give the employee a commensurate tax deduction? Now the companies will be disincentivized from keeping to quarantine when it isn't mandated, and from hiring back when it is. They're going to deduct it from their profit anyway if it's an employee cost, so it's going to come out of state tax revenues as it is.

Re: Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

#59

Post by djmobley »

ryneandal wrote: post #31
codegeek wrote: post #26

Everytime I see "must pay", it scares me. Yes I know that employees get exploited etc but instead of making employers pay, why not let employees get a tax deduction or even a credit ? As an employer, I can tell you that the burden of employer paying for everything is not necessarily a good idea. It is not about the money only but also about the added overhead/red tape. In US, I am already sick of for example health i…

Yes on the healthcare thing. Decouple insurance from employers completely.

Employers should get the benefit of healthy employees, but not incur the cost?

Re: Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home

#60

Post by MrGilbert »

Someone needs to take a closer look into this. It feels sketchy.

This is an article (from yesterday) based on a pay-walled article (from yesterday, and in a different language), which itself is based on a court decision (from April 2019).

This is not related to the current pandemic (which the article vaguely states, but not explicitly).

Also, to give you a time-frame: The linked court decision is from April 2019, the legal fight started in 2016 and went over several instances.

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