<story><title>Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home</title><url>https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/court-decision_companies-must-pay-share-of-rent-for-employees-working-from-home/45781126</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CaptainZapp</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;m sure that there are other unintended consequences, such as higher rents, but who knows.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s not that easy.&lt;p&gt;While Switzerland doesn&amp;#x27;t do rent control per se and there can be regional differences depending on scarcity of real estate for rent a landlord is rather restricted in raising rent once a contract is signed.&lt;p&gt;The only reasons why a rent can be raised are:&lt;p&gt;- Additional investments into an apartment, but the raise needs to be in proportion to the investment&lt;p&gt;- The bench mark mortgage rate goes up (on the other hand the rent needs to be lowered when the bench mark rate goes down, which is rarely the case nowadays, with a benchmark of 1.25%)&lt;p&gt;- Inflation to a certain amount, but quite restricted&lt;p&gt;Else than that rents can&amp;#x27;t just be raised.&lt;p&gt;All that said and while I see where the decision is coming from I think it&amp;#x27;s a bit ludicrous and I don&amp;#x27;t think that many employees will actually try to get this benefit. To begin with: labor laws are more flexible than rental contract law. So there&amp;#x27;s always a threat of losing your job if you try to push it.&lt;p&gt;But there&amp;#x27;s - at least in my opinion - an ethical edge. I, for one, felt highly privileged to be able to work from home and not being dependent on public transport during rush hour. In addition my employer invested a lot to get the infrastructure for thousands of people up to scratch in a very short time.&lt;p&gt;My ethical compass would feel it&amp;#x27;s wrong to squeeze additional benefits from an arrangement, which potentially safes my life and from which I feel that my management puts a lot of trust in me and my colleagues.</text></item><item><author>antr</author><text>Thought:&lt;p&gt;- 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).&lt;p&gt;- This eliminates a big chunk of fixed costs... as most are shifted to the employees.&lt;p&gt;- If authorities&amp;#x2F;employees start demanding that part of those costs are covered by the company, companies will push to get avoid work-from-home schemes, as they will want more control over those expenses...&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure that there are other unintended consequences, such as higher rents, but who knows.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Hokusai</author><text>&amp;gt; My ethical compass would feel it&amp;#x27;s wrong to squeeze additional benefits from an arrangement&lt;p&gt;I have seen others thinking like that, and then become very sore when they are fired in an economic downturn. They feel that &amp;quot;it is not fair&amp;quot; because they did as much as they could for their company, the company did not care.&lt;p&gt;Is that different in Switzerland? Has it a similar culture to Japan where firing an employee is the last resource? Or is it more like other European countries were a simple merge or a decline in share value increase the possibility of being laid off?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; So there&amp;#x27;s always a threat of losing your job if you try to push it.&lt;p&gt;That is true for everything. Are you aiming on being always the cheaper employee in your company? That is an strategy that may work when there is lay offs, but I do not know much wealth you will accumulate in the long term with that strategy instead of trying to maximize your salary&amp;#x2F;benefits.&lt;p&gt;I know that your attitude reduces salaries and reduces my and any other developer salary expectations, so maybe that makes me be extra doubtful of how good is your strategy for all the rest of us (or yourself).&lt;p&gt;If you do not care for your well-being but you are willing to do sacrifices for your company, may I ask what sector your company works in? Maybe, is it an NGO?</text></comment>
<story><title>Swiss companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home</title><url>https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/court-decision_companies-must-pay-share-of-rent-for-employees-working-from-home/45781126</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CaptainZapp</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;m sure that there are other unintended consequences, such as higher rents, but who knows.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s not that easy.&lt;p&gt;While Switzerland doesn&amp;#x27;t do rent control per se and there can be regional differences depending on scarcity of real estate for rent a landlord is rather restricted in raising rent once a contract is signed.&lt;p&gt;The only reasons why a rent can be raised are:&lt;p&gt;- Additional investments into an apartment, but the raise needs to be in proportion to the investment&lt;p&gt;- The bench mark mortgage rate goes up (on the other hand the rent needs to be lowered when the bench mark rate goes down, which is rarely the case nowadays, with a benchmark of 1.25%)&lt;p&gt;- Inflation to a certain amount, but quite restricted&lt;p&gt;Else than that rents can&amp;#x27;t just be raised.&lt;p&gt;All that said and while I see where the decision is coming from I think it&amp;#x27;s a bit ludicrous and I don&amp;#x27;t think that many employees will actually try to get this benefit. To begin with: labor laws are more flexible than rental contract law. So there&amp;#x27;s always a threat of losing your job if you try to push it.&lt;p&gt;But there&amp;#x27;s - at least in my opinion - an ethical edge. I, for one, felt highly privileged to be able to work from home and not being dependent on public transport during rush hour. In addition my employer invested a lot to get the infrastructure for thousands of people up to scratch in a very short time.&lt;p&gt;My ethical compass would feel it&amp;#x27;s wrong to squeeze additional benefits from an arrangement, which potentially safes my life and from which I feel that my management puts a lot of trust in me and my colleagues.</text></item><item><author>antr</author><text>Thought:&lt;p&gt;- 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).&lt;p&gt;- This eliminates a big chunk of fixed costs... as most are shifted to the employees.&lt;p&gt;- If authorities&amp;#x2F;employees start demanding that part of those costs are covered by the company, companies will push to get avoid work-from-home schemes, as they will want more control over those expenses...&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure that there are other unintended consequences, such as higher rents, but who knows.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>samizdis</author><text>&amp;gt; My ethical compass would feel it&amp;#x27;s wrong to squeeze additional benefits from an arrangement, which potentially saves my life and from which I feel that my management puts a lot of trust in me and my colleagues.&lt;p&gt;Much respect to your principles. I agree entirely with your viewpoint.</text></comment>