Karpeo · Business in Switzerland
Working days and calendar days in Switzerland: definitions and calculations
A five-day deadline can end on different dates depending on which days count. Swiss contracts may use the French terms jours ouvrables and jours ouvrés differently. For payroll and annual leave, start with the applicable calendar and the employee’s actual work schedule.
By Sarah Prieur · Swiss certified public accountant
The essentials: three ways to count days
A calendar day is any day of the calendar, whether worked or not. In everyday French usage, jours ouvrables generally means days on which work can ordinarily take place, often Monday to Saturday excluding public holidays. Jours ouvrés refers to days worked under the organisation’s operating calendar, often Monday to Friday in an office.
These are practical descriptions, not universal definitions applying to every Swiss legal provision. Nor do they map neatly to the English expressions “business days” and “working days”. A contract, collective agreement or procedural rule may specify a different calculation. Read the provision that establishes the deadline.
For annual leave, focus on the entitlement in weeks and the employee’s normal working days. Swiss minimum holiday entitlement is expressed in weeks; do not automatically import a French statutory method for deducting leave.
Calendar days, operating days and individual working days
| Term | Usual meaning in this context | Example: office open Monday to Friday |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar day | Every date in the calendar | Includes Saturday and Sunday |
| Jours ouvrables | Days ordinarily capable of being worked, subject to the definition used | Often Monday to Saturday, excluding relevant public holidays |
| Jours ouvrés | Days worked under the organisation’s operating calendar | Monday to Friday, excluding applicable days off |
| Individual scheduled working day | A day the employee is due to work | For example, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for a part-time employee |
The company calendar and an individual schedule are not interchangeable. Friday may be an operating day for the company while an employee working Monday to Thursday is not scheduled to work.
Saturday is not automatically a day off either. It can be part of the normal rota in retail, hospitality or other activities. Sunday-work rules and sector-specific exceptions must be considered separately. Our guide to working hours in Switzerland explains the broader framework.
A commercial contract can reduce ambiguity by specifying, for example, “five days from Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays at the place of delivery”. This is usually more useful than leaving “business day” undefined. See also our guide to Swiss terms and conditions.
How to calculate a five-day deadline
Take a hypothetical contractual example. A request arrives on Monday. The contract says the five-day period starts the following day, and no public holiday intervenes.
| Definition agreed in this example | Days counted | Resulting deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Five calendar days | Tuesday through Saturday | Saturday |
| Five jours ouvrables, defined as Monday to Saturday | Tuesday through Saturday | Saturday |
| Five jours ouvrés, defined as Monday to Friday | Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the following Monday | The following Monday |
This example expressly excludes the day of receipt. Another rule could use a different starting point. Identify both the first day and the rule governing the final day.
Then account for relevant public holidays. A day off in one canton can be an ordinary day in another. For a transaction involving several cantons, clarify which location’s calendar applies.
Statutory and court deadlines may have special rules. Do not apply this table mechanically to an appeal, debt enforcement step or notice of termination. In particular, do not assume that a notice arriving after a month-end deadline is timely simply because the deadline fell on a weekend.
How to deduct an employee’s annual leave
Under article 329a of the Code of Obligations, the minimum is generally four weeks per year of service, and five weeks for employees who have not yet reached their 20th birthday. A contract, standard employment contract or collective employment agreement may provide more.
Part-time work does not itself reduce the number of weeks of rest. With a five-day working week, four weeks generally means 20 scheduled working days. For an employee working three days per week, it means 12 days on that schedule. Both can take four complete weeks away from work.
Part-time example
An employee works on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. They take a full week of annual leave with no public holiday. Their balance falls by three days, not five. Wednesday and Friday were not scheduled working days.
If the same employment percentage is spread over five shorter days, a week away instead corresponds to five of those shorter days. Confusing part-time work spread over fewer days with shorter daily hours can distort the leave balance.
Recording leave in hours can be helpful for variable schedules, provided the method remains consistent with the entitlement in weeks and the hours that would normally have been worked. Document changes of schedule rather than arbitrarily changing an existing balance.
What happens when a public holiday falls during annual leave?
Applicable public holidays depend on the canton and sometimes local rules. 1 August is the only federal public holiday. Other holiday calendars differ across Switzerland.
A recognised public holiday during annual leave should generally not be deducted as a leave day where the employee would otherwise have been scheduled to work. By contrast, a holiday on a normal non-working day does not automatically create an additional replacement day; check any more favourable rule.
For the employee working Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, a Thursday public holiday during a week away can affect the deduction. A Friday public holiday does not automatically become another day off.
Check our public holiday calendar by canton, the applicable agreement and the company’s rules before configuring absence tracking.
How many Monday-to-Friday days are there in 2026?
The year 2026 has 365 calendar days and 261 Monday-to-Friday dates, before public holidays and other absences. That is not the number of days every employee actually works.
For a regular Monday-to-Friday schedule, start with those dates, subtract public holidays falling on that schedule, then annual leave and other relevant absences.
Recalculate for another canton, a schedule including Saturdays or a part-time arrangement. Subtracting all nine Geneva holidays without checking their weekdays would produce the wrong result in this example.
Common payroll and contract mistakes
- Using one national calendar: determine the relevant holiday rules for each workplace.
- Treating every part-time employee as working five short days: the actual distribution of work matters.
- Mixing different bases: keep an entitlement in weeks consistent with the day or hour balance used in the payroll system.
- Automatically moving deadlines to Monday: check the applicable receipt and expiry rules, especially for termination notices.
A written calculation method, worked examples and an annual calendar check keep scheduling, leave and payroll consistent. Agree which tasks are performed internally and which are delegated; our guide to the accountant’s role explains why the scope of payroll support should be explicit.
Frequently asked questions
Is Saturday always a working day?
No. Saturday may be included in a contract’s definition of jours ouvrables, but whether it is an operating or scheduled working day depends on the organisation and the employee’s timetable. Check the wording rather than assuming.
Do five business days always mean one week?
Often for a Monday-to-Friday office, but public holidays, closures, the starting date and the contractual definition can change the result.
Do part-time employees receive fewer weeks of annual leave?
No. Working part-time does not itself reduce the number of weeks of leave. The equivalent number of days or hours is adapted to the employee’s actual schedule.
Should every public holiday be deducted from the annual working-day total?
No. Check which holidays fall on days that would normally be worked and which rules apply. A holiday on an ordinary non-working day does not automatically create a replacement day.
Can 261 days be used as everyone’s attendance total for 2026?
No. It is only the number of Monday-to-Friday dates in 2026 before public holidays, annual leave and individual schedule differences.
Sources and verification
English edition checked on 10 October 2026. Calendar examples have been recalculated using the assumptions stated above.
About the author
Sarah Prieur
Sarah Prieur is a Swiss certified public accountant, a partner and head of operations at Karpeo. She supports businesses, self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs with accounting, tax and VAT matters. Before joining Karpeo, she spent eight years in financial audit at PwC Switzerland, progressing to manager.
Read more about Sarah Prieur →