Work Contract – Part 1: What Is It and What Are Its Characteristics?
Under specific circumstances it may prove difficult to distinguish between a work contract and a contract for services. This distinction is of paramount importance, however. Learn here what the work contract is really about and how it can be defined.
What Is the Work Contract?
The work contract is governed by article 363 et seq of the Swiss Civil Code. By signing a work contract, the contractor undertakes to do a certain work and the customer to pay for it. Unlike in the contract for services, not only proper performance is owed. The contractor is obliged to deliver a concrete piece of work. It is what best characterises the work contract. The work has to be something that is tangible or can be at least materialised. In addition, it should be possible to evaluate the objective correctness or, as the case may be, the fulfilment of any prerequisites. A chair or table to be made by a joiner is just the same work as a painting is. There is no work if it is impossible to guarantee its success beforehand (as is the case, for example, with medical treatments) or the work involves manufacturing a standard product (e.g. an IKEA table).
Personal Performance by the Contractor
If you order a work, you usually select the contractor for a specific reason such as quality or prestige. The law takes into account this circumstance by obliging the contractor to perform the work personally or at least have it done under the contractor’s supervision (article 364 clause 2 of the Swiss Civil Code). An exemption from this rule may be made if it is agreed so or, due to the nature of the transaction, the contractor’s personal features are not crucial. An example for it is simple works such as polishing and re-varnishing a few ordinary tables.
Do you have any innovative business idea you would like to make come true? Use STARTUPS.CH experts to become self-employed.
