An agreement signed on the one hand between one or more employer associations and/or one or several employers and on the other hand by one or more employee associations in order to establish together clauses on the conclusion, the subject and the purpose of individual employment contracts between employers and the employees concerned (normative provisions). A CLA may also contain other clauses (semi-normative provisions), provided that they deal with relations between the employers and workers (contributions to a compensation fund, representation of employees within the enterprise, professional training and development etc); it can even be limited to these clauses. Furthermore, the agreement can define the reciprocal rights and obligations of the contracting parties (provisions on contractual obligations), as well as the monitoring and application of the prescribed clauses. The CLA is governed by articles 356 to 358 of the Swiss Code of Obligations.
CLAs without normative provisions generally overlap with the scope (employers and workers) of other CLAs with normative provisions in the same economic sector. A person who is subject to several CLAs is counted several times.
CLAs signed on behalf of the employer by one or more employer associations are called associative CLAs, CLAs signed on behalf of the employer by representatives of one or more companies are called company CLAs.
Statistical source:
Survey on Collective Labour Agreements in Switzerland (SCLA)
