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

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

#61

Post by jeroenhd »

mehrdadn wrote: post #21
ceejayoz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equipping and maintaining a home office? Space that can no longer be used for other stuff, and costs of things like chairs and office supplies a company would normally cover?

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.

This is rent as in paying a share of the worker's rent. But, as many working from home will concur, most can't work from home well without dedicating part of your living space to office work. That extra room or that part of the living room that was previously free space is now practically reserved for the company you work for.

I don't know if I agree with the policy, but I can see some sense in it. By paying for the living space sacrificed for WFH, companies are disincentivised to push for WFH after all lockdowns are over to save on office cost. Paying the same wage with less cost on office maintenance would be a dream come true for employers, of course, but that would shift the cost of the work space to the employer which I would find unfair.

As the article states:

> Geiser points out that the decision applies to employees who work from home upon the employer’s request. However, employees that work from home on their own behest may not receive rental compensation.

> ... Luca Cirigliano, General Secretary of the Swiss Confederation of Trade Unions, told the paper that companies often use flexible workstations in order to save money on office rent.

> It is extremely unfair as well as illegal for employers to pass costs on to employees in this way, Cirigliano told the paper.

So, if the company forces you to work from home so they can save on rent, they have to pay you for "renting" office space from your house.

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

#62

Post by cactus2093 »

ramblerman wrote: post #13
m463 wrote: post #4

> The judges estimated a monthly compensation of CHF150 ($154) for the employee’s rent to be justified. I thought it was a token amount, but then I don't know what rent in switzerland is like. Is that like 3% or 30% ?

Somewhere in between. In Zurich 1500 would be a low rent, and 3000 would get you a 2 bedroom with view and quite spacious +80m^2

Wow I had thought the cost of living was high in Switzerland but I guess when you’re used to the Bay Area everything else seems cheap. In SF you’d pay like $5000 for that 2bd unless you go out pretty to the more remote, harder to commute from neighborhoods.

In any case, $154 is still not that significant, definitely not enough on its own to let you afford an extra bedroom to turn into an office, for instance.

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

#64

Post by NeutronStar »

ramblerman wrote: post #25
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.

You didn't negate OP's point though. Just stated it was a different motivation. The net result is still that you - disincentivize companies to let people work from home - give people who can work from home, (and already are at an advantage to cashiers/tellers/etc...) more benefits.

So because cashiers can't benefit from the benefit, no one should?

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

#68

Post by asjw »

nojito wrote: post #43
the42thdoctor wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, since I started working from home my eletric bill is up by 20%. So is only fair to assume that they should pay me more, to cover that cost.

Do you pay your employer for the utilities at work?

The employer wants you to be there, if they want you to stay home, they save on the office bill and can pay for the difference in your bills

It's a zero sum game for them

No big deal, seems fair to me

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

#69

Post by RHSeeger »

rbreve wrote: post #12

In Finland people who work from home and bought anything needed to work, for example a desk, chair, display or headphones, they get a tax refund.

That used to be the case in the US, too. And the same was true of rent/mortgage/heat/etc costs IF the room you used for an office was only used for that purpose. Sadly, the tax laws changed recently and you no longer get to claim them (unless self employed).

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

#70

Post by mcv »

sdfx wrote: post #46
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…

A trend that started already in a lot of companies a couple of years ago and will only be accelerated by Covid. Many places do overbook desks in offices right now and have flex-tables without fixed assigned workers. Seems fair to think about compensating employees for the costs that are being pushed to their side.

True. When my team was just starting out, we couldn't find a place where we could sit together, because company policy was that they only needed 0.7 desk per employee. Many teams did have their own space, so we had nothing.
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