Hi, I was wondering if anybody has an experience with the chômage when it was them to leave their job. (Without being fired).
As far as I understand and also from Geneva ORP site, you still have the right to receive your indemnity but can be penalized:
1 to 15 days for “low fault”
15 to 30 days for “medium fault”
30 to 60 days for “severe fault”
https://www.ge.ch/indemnites-chomage/droits-obligations-sanctions-lies-assurance-chomage
Honestly we are thinking if my husband should quit, since the commuting costs to his job (500/month) together with worsening work conditions (it is an hourly work, far away, and they decided to close in the middle of the day and those hours are not paid), so he’s basically making -10% his salary with the new conditions and more hours away from home. Salary is in the range of 3500/mo gross.
I think that if the penalty is reasonable it is better for him to quit and search something better and closer to home while he’s covered by chomage indemnities. But I wonder how ORP would consider the penalty.
Any experiences would be appreciated.
10 comments
Never had any issues with them.
Expect the worst, 1 to 2 months.
Look for a job while still working, afaik it’s the max when quitting.
Usually if you quit they give you the max penalty
Look for a job first. Don’t underestimate the effect of not having one on your well being. Also, explain this to a recruiter
A friend of mine just quit. The penalty was 60 days (which is basically 3 months reduction to the chomage period.
As other suggested, independently from the penalty, it is best to look for a job while you have one.
Never leave any job until you’ve found a new one.
Expect the maximum penalty. The chomage is basically an insurance scheme run by the state, and they have loss-adjusters to protect their interests, so don’t expect leniency or favours. Quite the opposite. It’s an amazing system, but they’re not just throwing their money at you.
As someone said, the penalty relates to working days not calendar dates, so it could be a very difficult time for you financially if they give you the maximum penalty when you’re only making CHF 3.5k a month and the chomage payments take 3 months to kick in.
Don’t forget also that chomage is issued retrospectively for the month past, so a 3 month penalty would be on top of the one month you’d have to wait for the payment for any month where you were legitimately covered by the unemployment benefits.
When you do get support, don’t forget it’s only 75%»85% of the salary depending on family circumstances, so while it is an excellent safety net, you’ve have to have been working for 2 years previously and the money you receive will mean that times will be tight until you get back to the usual income level.
Just find another job closer to home and try to make the move as seamlessly as possible. Use your vacation or sick days when you have an interview lived up, and leave your current position with a decent quality certificate of employment/reference. Don’t underestimate the importance of leaving a job with goodwill behind you; employers pay attention to references and certificat de travails, so just stick it out until you find sth better
Look for a job first. Afaik your employer has to give you time off for job interviews.
If the ORP consider the reason to leave the job as valid, the penalty will be reduced. When I was working for a selling company, I had a penalty of 20 days as it could not be expected that I kept this job.
That said, I don’t think unpaid lunch break would be strong enough to get a penalty reduction.
You need 3 months worth of job applications to not get penalised. But you also need to consider that the chomage will force a job on you whether you like said job or not and it can be up to 1.5 hours commute from your residence, so is it worth it?