OLD AGE AND WIDOW INSURANCE (AHV) AND ACCIDENT INSURANCE (UNFALLVERSICHERUNG)
Josefina Pérez works few hours a week helping in a flower shop, when someone is absent due to illness, she earns a couple of francs a year and she asks if despite the little salary she receives (mini-Lohn) her boss should advertise to the AHV and you must make him an accident insurance contract.
The rules are different for Old Age and Widow’s Insurance (AHV) and for accident insurance.
For AHV, you can decide yourself, as long as the salary does not exceed 2300 francs a year, the employer (employer) is not obliged to deduct the amount for Ahv. But you can ask him.
Another thing would be, if you work in a private house as a domestic worker, for example, cleaning assistant, taking care of children or the elderly. Also if you work in the area of art and culture. Since employees in this sector must pay the AHV amount from the first franc of salary.
For accident insurance: in principle each employee must be insured against accidents that occur in the workplace.
There is an exception, if an employee in a company does not earn more than 2300 francs a year, there is no compulsory premium. An employer can insure its employee but is not obligated. If he does not do so, he pays the SUVA or the compensatory fund (Ersatzkasse UVG) in the event of an accident and the employer must pay a compensatory premium (Ersatzprämie) for the last 5 years at most.
In your specific case, since the other employees of the florist make more than 2300 francs a year, the company should also insure you for accidents, in this case they will not deduct you, since the premium for accident in the place of Work is paid by the employer and against accidents occurring outside the workplace you are not insured, since on average you work less than 8 hours a week. There is also no deduction for the Non-Occupational Accident Insurance Premium (Nichtberufsunfall-Versicherung) for you.
Ana Moncada, Lawyer. La Página newspaper, Switzerland. May 2003.
