Pay attention to correct employment conditions. illicit work distorts competition and jeopardizes employee protection.

Here are a few examples in our area that we have been confronted with (of course this list is by no means conclusive).

Law

A family from the Zurich Oberland had to learn the hard way that employing someone on the “black market” is no longer a trivial offence, when they were advised one day by the police that this type of employment is clearly regarded as a crime in law and would be prosecuted. The case has now closed. The family now has to admit that, over and above all of the trouble with the authorities and the entry in the criminal record, that the hourly rate for the cleaner was so high due to the fine, that a professional cleaning agency would have been 50% cheaper. 

Occupational accident

The cleaning lady of couple B. from F. fell whilst carrying out her illegal work and broke her left arm. When the couple asked their cleaning lady to state that the accident had happened at home, she immediately asked for continued wages for the entire period of convalescence. Otherwise she would tell the insurance company the truth. The couple decided to agree to this payment and thus not only had to pay for 3 months but also had to clean themselves during this period.

Material damage

Mr. and Mrs. ANother employed an exceptionally reliable and hard-working cleaning lady. One day, she scrubbed the parquet floor to the best of her knowledge with a strong solvent, as she wanted to remove stains. To her dismay the entire seal dissolved. Mrs. ANother had to report the damage to their household insurance, as officially they were not employing anyone in the home. Insurance companies now investigate cases, such as these to verify them. What is more, claim inspectors are on commission to make cost savings. When a neighbour confirmed that a cleaning lady regularly entered and left the house, proceedings were instigated for insurance fraud over and above the usual proceedings for “black market” employment. 

Residence permit

Several apartment keys were found on a foreign worker without a residence permit. The immigration police visited the owners of the keys and it soon became clear that the woman had been cleaning in all of these homes. The authorities were notified in order to instigate the usual proceedings. The households were made to pay heavy fines and now have entries in the criminal record for illegal employment of people without work permits. The cleaning lady was expelled from the country. 

Termination disputes

A young man illegally employed a cleaner over several years. When his mother retired, they agreed that she would in future clean the house in order to earn a little extra money. The son therefore gave his cleaning lady notice. She was so annoyed about this decision that she demanded social benefits from the AHV (Social Security) office. The man was forced to pay in arrears all of her employer’s and employee‘s contributions for the entire period of her employment. Over and above many troubling questions the man was subjected to, as well as the legal consequences, he was unable to reclaim the employee’s contributions from the cleaning lady. 

Confidential documents

The cleaning lady came across confidential document in the home in which she had been cleaning. When she then passed this information on to a third party, the tenants of the apartment had no opportunity to take action as they had not “officially” employed their cleaning lady.

Theft

One of our actual customers today reports that “when the cleaning lady stole valuable possessions and cash from the apartment, we were unable to take legal action against her."

Break-in

It has not been confirmed up to now that an illegally employed cleaning lady passed on information about a certain household. It is unusual, however, that in the first week during which the tenants were on holiday they were broken into. A vase containing glass flowers, which stood behind venetian blinds on the window through which the thieves broke in and was invisible from outside, had been carefully moved to the side, as if they had known that it existed.