Did you check at the end of last month how much salary your employer actually transferred to your account? If not, you should do so, because if you blindly trust your employer, you run the risk of receiving less in the end than you would actually be entitled to under your employment contract.

The Federal Supreme Court has developed a case law on the unconditional acceptance of a lower salary than agreed, which probably contradicts the legal sense of most legal laypersons. The highest court in Switzerland assumes that an employee who repeatedly accepts a reduced salary has tacitly agreed to a corresponding salary reduction. The change to the wage agreement may already apply if the employee does not complain to the employer for just three months.

Contracts often contain a so-called written reservation, according to which changes to the contract can only be made in writing. Anyone who thinks that in such a case the employee is protected from an unintentional pay cut is far from the truth. According to a precedent set by the Federal Supreme Court, an employee had not only waived his right to a salary reduction after accepting the reduced salary six times, but had also waived the written form requirement.

In its judgements, the Federal Supreme Court speaks of a “factual presumption” regarding the agreed salary reduction. If something is presumed, the opposite of this presumption can still be proven in court. In the words of the Federal Supreme Court: “However, the employee can overturn this presumption [of a salary reduction] if he can prove special circumstances on the basis of which the employer could not conclude that the employee agreed to the reduction despite the employee’s long silence.” However, it is usually difficult to prove such special circumstances.

As mentioned at the beginning, this case law is likely to surprise many legal laypersons. Especially since, in accordance with the concept of employee protection, during the term of the employment relationship and one month after its termination, the employee cannot waive claims arising from indispensable provisions of the law or from indispensable provisions of a collective labour agreement. However, this does not help the employee either, because according to case law, the simple wage claim does not result from such an indispensable provision of the law or provision of a collective labour agreement.

Therefore, in order to protect yourself from unwanted wage cuts, you should immediately complain to your employer in writing if you are paid a lower wage and demand the correct amount.