Have you been planning to hire a cleaner who would like to help you with your daily household chores? Finally put your plan into practice? Then you should definitely remember that you have to register your cleaning lady properly.
Register and insure cleaning lady - many employers act in ignorance
For many households, a cleaning lady is an indispensable help. If you would also like to make your life easier with the help of a cleaner, you basically have two options. You can hire and insure a cleaner yourself, or you can contact a professional agency or platform that will put you in touch with a professional domestic help and supports you in the employment and everything that goes with it.
People often take the supposedly easier route and look for a cleaning lady themselves - whether by posting a notice, online or among acquaintances. But what is often overlooked in the process: Anyone who hires a cleaning lady independently becomes an employer. This is associated with various rights, but also obligations. A responsible employer will register and insure his cleaning lady. However, in many cases this is not the case. Instead, the reality is that many domestic helpers are hired on the black market because employers are either unaware of the required registration processes or simply want to save themselves the time. However, in order to enjoy the work of your cleaning help, and of course especially the results, with a clear conscience, it is important that you hire your cleaning help properly. Your cleaning help will also feel much more comfortable in her working relationship if she knows that you as an employer act responsibly and seriously and that she can rely on correct billing and sufficient insurance coverage. And a satisfied cleaner is much more committed to her work and therefore does a better job - which in turn benefits you.
Properly insure cleaning lady - what you need to consider
If you plan to hire a cleaning lady privately, you should take into account that the following tasks will come your way.
1. employment contract
Depending on the canton in which you live, the standard employment contract for household employees applies. The provisions of this contract may differ from canton to canton. To obtain the relevant employment contracts, you can contact the cantonal economic office. There you can obtain the form for registering a cleaning lady. The standard employment contract for housekeeping regulates the salary for your domestic help if she works for you for 5 or more hours per week.
2. register AHV
In Switzerland, there is an obligation to register the cleaning help with the AHV. If you want to register your cleaning lady with the AHV, you need the personal AHV number of your domestic help. Please contact the responsible AHV office in the canton where you live.
Accident insurance
Another important point is the accident insurance for your cleaning help. As is generally known, most accidents happen in the household and the cleaning and household work to be done entails a risk that should not be underestimated that accidents can occur. In this case, the health insurance of your cleaning help will not cover you, as it is only responsible for accidents that are not work-related. This, in turn, makes you liable for all accidents that your cleaner suffers in your household or during work that is carried out on your behalf. Accident insurance is therefore essential to protect yourself financially. It is a fact that the premium for the accident insurance is to be paid by the employer. The insurance premium cannot be deducted from the cleaning lady's salary. If the working time of the domestic help is more than 8 hours a week with the same employer, non-occupational accident insurance is also added. This insurance premium may be deducted from the salary.
4. illness
Should your cleaning lady be absent due to illness, her wage claim must also be regulated. For this reason, too, it is important that you register your cleaner correctly. As far as the rights and obligations regarding the employment of domestic workers are concerned, the Code of Obligations applies. In addition, cantonal regulations must also be observed, the standard employment contracts. Many of these standard employment contracts stipulate that employers are obliged to take out daily sickness benefit insurance for domestic employees. Such daily sickness benefit insurance ensures that the cleaning lady receives 80% of her salary for up to 720 days if she is unable to perform her duties due to illness. Employers who do not take out such insurance must continue to pay their cleaning lady in the event of illness, out of their own pocket. Thus, appropriate insurance protects the employer from an immense financial risk in this case as well. It is also possible that a written employment contract is drawn up between the employer and the cleaning lady, in which the standard employment contract is declared invalid and thus the daily sickness allowance insurance is circumvented. In this case, the provisions of the Code of Obligations will apply again. If your cleaning lady then becomes ill for a longer period in the first year of service, you must pay her the full salary, but only for 3 weeks. The entitlement is extended by additional weeks the more years your cleaner works for you. The extent to which the entitlement is extended depends on the court practice of the respective canton. If no written contract is concluded, the standard employment contract of the respective canton automatically applies.
5. family allowances
If you register your cleaning lady SVA, eligible child allowances can be clarified. If your cleaning lady has children under the age of 16, or children under the age of 25 if they are still in education, she may be entitled to family allowances.
Register a cleaner correctly with suuber
You can also delegate the entire bureaucratic effort to suuber and thus register and insure your cleaning lady correctly as easily and conveniently as make possible. With suuber you can register and insure your cleaner without having to deal with the time-consuming paperwork - quite simply from the couch off. You issue a fiduciary power of attorney, so that we can take care of all correspondence regarding your cleaning staff. In addition to full registration and insurance, we also ensure that your household help is correctly billed. With suuber, your cleaning lady and your household are fully insured. You will enjoy far more advantageous tariffs than would be the case if you took out the insurance directly.