In the case of temporary employment, the employee is employed by a recruitment agency and subsequently has temporary assignments, i.e. changing and time-limited assignments with different employers. As mentioned above, the model of temporary employment is sometimes still pigeonholed in a negative way. This is probably due to the fact that the labour law standards for temporary positions were not always implemented to the same extent in the past. For example, some recruitment agencies paid lower wages to employees in order to keep their own earnings high. At the latest since the introduction of the Collective Labour Agreement on Staff Leasing (GAV Personalverleih) in 2012, such an approach is no longer possible.
With the CBA Staff Leasing, labour law conditions were negotiated for all Swiss staffing service providers. In the process, minimum wages were introduced for temporary employees and regulations concerning overtime supplements, occupational pension schemes, daily sickness benefits, etc. were declared generally binding. As a result, temporary employees are now largely on an equal footing with permanent employees, if not better off. As mentioned, a minimum wage applies to temporary employees and overtime bonuses are mandatory, which is not the case for permanent employees. In addition, temporary workers enjoy strong protection in that they are subject to labour and social security law as employees.
In contrast to temporary employment, which ends automatically at the end of the fixed period of employment, many client companies today work with the so-called "Try & Hire" model. This is designed so that after a three-month test phase, a permanent position is created between the employee and the company.
Client companies often use the try & hire model in order to save time in the search for suitable workers on the one hand and on the other hand to be able to prepare the takeover for permanent employment after the three-month period. It is therefore much easier for the client company to employ workers during the first three months via a recruitment agency.
With regard to the try & hire model, some employees express the concern that taking on a temporary position instead of a permanent one entails certain risks. This consideration is understandable, but is not thought through to the end; even with permanent employment, there is normally a three-month probationary period during which notice of termination can be given within a week. Accordingly, the three-month period of the try & hire model does not lead to any disadvantage compared to permanent employment. In addition, the temporary employee has the advantage that many companies do not advertise their try & hire positions publicly, but instead place them directly with the personnel service provider.