Assignment of personnel to work in Switzerland by companies from the European Union / EFTA(1)

Before performing any services at CERN, companies not established in Switzerland are required under the Swiss legislation in force to make a declaration to the Swiss Federal Office for Migration or to obtain work permits from the Geneva authorities for the employees they intend to assign to work on the Swiss part of the CERN Site.

At the request of the Swiss authorities, CERN cannot register employees to whom this legislation applies except in the following circumstances:

Case No. 1: Work lasting less than 90 days in the case of companies from the EU-25/EFTA;

Case No. 2: Work lasting less than 90 days in the case of EU-2 companies (Bulgaria and Romania);

Case No. 3: Work lasting more than 90 days in the case of companies from the EU-27/EFTA.

In case No. 1, an attestation d’annonce (declaration certificate) must be obtained. The declaration must be made via the Internet, using the official declaration form, at least 8 days before the start of the services. It is required only if the company performs more than eight days of work within a calendar year. See http://www.bfm.admin.ch/content/bfm/fr/home/themen/fza_schweiz-eu-efta/meldeverfahren.html

N.B. A declaration must be made even for a single day of work in the case of services relating to construction, cleaning, catering and security.

In case No. 2, a work permit must be obtained from the Geneva Office Cantonal de la Population (OCP).

In case No. 3, a work permit must be obtained from the Geneva OCP.

All the different procedures can be consulted on the Republic and Canton of Geneva's website concerning the employment of foreign nationals:
http://www.ge.ch/moe/fr/procedures.asp

You may also consult: www.detachement.ch

CERN's Registration Service cannot issue access cards to the employees concerned unless the necessary declaration certificates or work permits are presented.

We should like to take the opportunity to remind you of the following:

  1. As a general rule, when a company that is not established in Switzerland provides services in that country, the employees it temporarily assigns to perform them are subject to public order provisions as well as to the provisions of collective agreements applicable to employees of companies in the same sector established in Geneva, notably in respect of health and safety, minimum remuneration, working hours, the duration of rest periods and leave, and working conditions. This implies, for instance, that the wage must be at least equivalent to the minimum wage laid down by collective agreement for the job concerned for each hour actually worked;
  2. Night work (i.e. between the hours of 11.00 p.m. and 6.00 a.m.) and work on Sundays and official holidays is authorised only for urgent assignments duly established as such and requires a permit to be obtained (http://www.geneve.ch/sante-travail/derogation.asp?inc=1);
  3. Nationals of a non EU-25/EFTA country may be assigned to work to Switzerland if they have held a residence permit in an EU-25/EFTA country for at least 12 months;
  4. The information provided at bidders conferences organised by CERN represents only the general guidelines and does not absolve firms of their obligation to obtain the necessary information independently (e.g. from legal advisers, financial bodies or the competent authorities).

Relations with the Host States Service
www.cern.ch/relations
relations.secretariat@cern.ch
Tel. 72848

 


(1) EU-25: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

EU-27: EU-25 + Bulgaria and Romania.

EFTA – European Free Trade Association: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway.

by DG Unit