Employee monitoring law · Switzerland
Systems for monitoring worker behaviour are prohibited by the labour ordinance.
Behaviour-monitoring systems are prohibited, so anything deployed must serve another documented purpose.
- Region
- Europe
- Instruments
- 3 governing
- Employer duties
- 3 listed
- Last reviewed
- August 22, 2026
Switzerland · what the law requires
Specific practices restricted
Article 26 of Ordinance 3 to the Labour Act prohibits the use of surveillance or monitoring systems intended to observe worker behaviour. Where such systems are necessary for other reasons, safety, quality, production planning. They must be designed so as not to impair the health or freedom of movement of employees, and workers must be consulted. The revised Federal Act on Data Protection applies on top, with proportionality and transparency duties familiar from the GDPR.
- Behaviour monitoring is the prohibited purposeA system whose intent is to observe how employees behave is barred. A system serving safety or quality that incidentally produces behavioural data is assessed differently.
- Consult employees on the designWhere a monitoring-capable system is deployed for a permitted purpose, workers must be heard on how it is set up.
- No health or freedom-of-movement impairmentThe test is explicitly about the pressure the system puts on people, not only about the data it holds.
- Proof Ledger
- Outcomes
- Certificates
- Audit log
- Data access
- Disputes
- Data egress
- Export
- What We See
- Controls
- AKAria K. viewed screenshotsLena M. · 3 capturesScreen capturemacOS · London09:42a91f…4c023d7b…91ee
- JMJon M. exported time reportDesign team · CSVmacOS · Berlin09:313d7b…91ee77c5…0ba4
- SDSara D. opened capture reviewRavi P. · one flagged frameWindows · Manchester09:1877c5…0ba4e208…5f13
- wm_live_7f2… read /v1/deliverablesScoped key · read onlyPublic API · allowlisted IP08:57e208…5f13b64a…2d90
- LMLena M. viewed her own recordWhat We SeemacOS · London08:44b64a…2d901cf9…8e77
- AKAria K. changed capture policyBlur set to alwaysmacOS · London08:261cf9…8e7705d2…ae31
The instruments, and which control answers each duty
- Ordinance 3 to the Labour Act: ArGV 3 / OLT 3 art. 26. Prohibits surveillance systems intended to monitor worker behaviour; where needed for other purposes, they must not impair health or freedom of movement.
- Federal Act on Data Protection: revFADP / nLPD, in force since 2023. Proportionality, purpose limitation, transparency, and a data protection impact assessment for high-risk processing.
- Code of Obligations: CO art. 328. The employer's duty to protect the employee's personality, the general clause Swiss courts reason from.
No product does this part
What you must still do yourself
Compliance is a property of your deployment. These are the steps in Switzerland that no vendor can complete on your behalf, and skipping them is what turns a rollout into a finding.
- 1Establish and document the non-behavioural purpose, or do not deploy.
- 2Consult employees on the configuration and record that you did.
- 3Run a DPIA under the revFADP where the processing is high risk.
- If you get it wrongThe revFADP carries criminal fines of up to CHF 250,000 against responsible individuals, unusually, against people rather than only companies. Labour inspectorates can order a non-compliant system withdrawn.
Verify the claim
Every control above, on the page that describes it
- Interval capture with randomised cadence rather than continuous streamingAvoid the constant-observation pattern the article targets
- Per-app deny-lists enforced on the device before anything is transmittedKeep sensitive activity outside the system
- Employee self-view of collected data plus an appeal route for a specific captureSupport the consultation with something inspectable
Sources and review date
Last reviewed August 22, 2026This is a summary of how employee-monitoring rules generally work in this jurisdiction, written to help you scope a rollout and brief your own advisers. It is not legal advice, it is not a substitute for it, and law changes. Verify against the primary sources listed and take local counsel before you deploy.
Nearby jurisdictions
Monitoring law elsewhere in Europe
- FranceConsult the CSE first. Skipping it is the criminal offence of obstruction.
- BelgiumCBA 81 governs electronic monitoring and binds every private-sector employer.
- SpainDigital rights are written into the data protection act, and reps must be involved.
- FinlandA dedicated working-life privacy act, and a necessity test read very narrowly.
- PolandThe Labour Code lists the permitted purposes, and productivity is not one of them.
- United KingdomThe ICO's 2023 monitoring guidance is the operative document, and it expects a DPIA.
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