Global Mobility Insights NEWSLETTER Frühling / Spring 2024

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Global Mobility Insights - Frühling / Spring 2024 International employee assignment to Brazil Author: Friederike V. Ruch, CONVINUS Switzerland is currently negotiating alongside the other EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) with the Mercosur states regarding a free trade agreement with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. According to the chief economist of the Swiss business association Economiesuisse, Rudolf Minsch, there are a number of reasons why the free trade agreement is very important for Switzerland (e.g. free trade agreements promote prosperity, there are advantages through greater value creation, Mercosur countries have a huge domestic market with strong growth prospects and competitive advantages can arise, e.g. through customs concessions). Once the agreement has been successfully concluded, it is likely that there will also be an increase in the number of employees working in Brazil and people from Brazil working in Switzerland. It is therefore important to take a closer look at the individual aspects that are decisive for international employee assignments. What points need to be taken into particular consideration when seconding employees from Switzerland to Brazil, for example for a period of 2 years? Labour law aspects Brazilian labour law must be taken into account for an assignment of 2 years. If Brazilian labour law has provisions that are more favourable than Swiss labour law, these must be taken into account. This is because labour law primarily pursues the idea of employee protection. Contractual aspects There are various ways to contractually regulate a secondment. The most common options are 1) Addendum to the existing Swiss employment contract 2) "Suspension agreement" to the existing Swiss employment contract and secondment agreement 3) "Suspension agreement" to the existing Swiss employment contract and local (fixed-term) Brazilian employment contract 32 convinus.com
Global Mobility Insights - Frühling / Spring 2024 4) Local (fixed-term) Brazilian employment contract only If the employee is seconded for a fixed-term period and the employer wishes to bring the employee back, the above-mentioned variants 1 to 3 best reflect this. This is because the employment relationship with Switzerland remains in place in each of these variants, even if this is only subliminally the case in variants 2 and 3. Authorisation law aspects As the employee is gainfully employed in Brazil, a work permit must be obtained in Brazil. In Switzerland, the employee must deregister in Switzerland for 2 years due to the move to Brazil. If the employee is a Swiss citizen, this has no effect under authorisation law. If the employee is in possession of a Swiss B permit, they would lose this when they deregister in Switzerland. For an EU/EFTA citizen, this is also "not a tragedy", as they will receive a B permit again after returning to Switzerland after two years and resuming work. However, to ensure that a non-EU/EFTA citizen does not have to provide proof of priority for Swiss nationals after returning to Switzerland, an application for quota-free entry can be submitted. If the employee remains with the same employer and returns to the same position, they would then receive a B permit again. If the employee has a C permit, they will also lose this when they deregister in Switzerland, but this can be "frozen" for the posting period of 2 years, regardless of nationality. This means that the employee will receive their C permit again after their return. Compensation One of the mandatory conditions under labour law is that each country ensures that the salary or wage level does not fall below the domestic level. As the Swiss salary level is generally higher than the Brazilian salary level, the employee can continue to be paid their Swiss salary for the assignment in Brazil. However, two points should also be borne in mind here: Firstly, the cost of living in Brazil is lower than in Switzerland and the employee would therefore receive an indirect salary increase for the assignment period. convinus.com 33
Page 1 and 2: Global Mobility Insights Newsletter
Page 3 and 4: Global Mobility Insights - Frühlin
Page 15 and 16: Direktor oder leitender Angestellte
Page 17 and 18: Unternehmen ist berechtigt, eine Au
Page 29 and 30: TO KNOW THE PEOPLE GET OUR GLOBAL N
Page 31: your job was a colour - what colour
Page 55 and 56: Be Part of the Start #SGMC2025 Save

Global Mobility Insights NEWSLETTER Frühling / Spring 2024

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?