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Compliance knowledge for restaurant owners

Understanding the L-GAV rules

The key rules from the L-GAV (the national collective labour agreement for the Swiss hospitality industry) and the ArG (Swiss Labour Act) — what you need to know as a restaurant owner and how Gastrora checks them for you automatically.

Durationapprox. 10 min read

Topics8 rule areas

Last updatedL-GAV 2026

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Legal notice

This text summarises common practice and does not replace legal advice. The L-GAV (Landes-Gesamtarbeitsvertrag des Gastgewerbes, the national collective labour agreement for the hospitality industry), the ArG (Arbeitsgesetz, Swiss Labour Act), the related ordinances and the individual employment contract are authoritative. If in doubt: ask your fiduciary or GastroSuisse.

Rule 1 · ArG Art. 15

Mandatory breaks by shift length

Shift up to 5h

Not required

Shift 5–7h

15 min

Shift 7–9h

30 min

Shift from 9h

60 min

Breaks count as unpaid time — even short rest breaks. After more than 4 hours of work without a break, an interruption is mandatory (L-GAV Art. 17).

Gastrora check: When you publish the shift plan, every shift is checked against this table. If breaks are too short, the plan is blocked until you correct it.

Rule 2 · ArG Art. 15a

11 hours of rest between two shifts

Anyone who finishes work at 23:00 may start again at 10:00 at the earliest. These 11h protect against overtiredness and are mandatory — they can only be reduced to 8h in exceptional cases (max. 1×/week), and then with compensation.

Typical mistake: Late shift until midnight, early shift from 08:00 the next day. That is only 8h of rest — Gastrora blocks this when publishing.

Gastrora check: Strictly checked. The plan cannot be published as long as it contains a violation.

Rule 3 · L-GAV Art. 15 Ziff. 3

Maximum 50 hours per week

The maximum weekly working time is 50h. An employee with 42 hours per week can therefore work up to 8h of overtime per week — without anything extra having to be paid, as long as they stay under the cap.

Gastrora check: Strictly checked. Weeks over 50h are blocked.

Rule 4 · ArG Art. 18

Maximum 6 consecutive working days

After 6 consecutive working days at the latest, a full rest day (24h) must follow. This also applies across the end of the week.

Gastrora check: Strictly checked, blocking.

Rule 5 · L-GAV Art. 16

2 rest days per week (on average)

Monthly-paid employees are entitled to 2 rest days per week. At least one of them must be a full 24h rest day. The second can also be split into 2 half-days.

Vacation already includes the rest days: a week of vacation is recorded as 7 calendar days (Mon–Sun), and no additional rest-day entitlement arises for these days. So after taking vacation, no rest-day credit remains «open». Likewise, the month's target hours are reduced by the vacation days (GastroSuisse formula: (calendar days − absence days) ÷ 7 × weekly hours).

In busy weeks, rest days can be postponed — but they must be made up within 4 weeks.

Gastrora check: Marked as a warning (yellow) — you can still publish, but you need to plan the compensation.

Rule 6 · L-GAV Art. 15 Ziff. 5+6

Overtime: 100% or 125%?

Overtime worked is compensated at the normal rate (100%) — either as time off or as pay — if you meet the following conditions:

You communicate the balance of hours monthly to your employees.
You have the working time signed off monthly (countersignature).
Both are documented.

If one of the conditions is missing, the 125% rate applies — i.e. a 25% supplement on all overtime. With many employees, that is a considerable amount.

Gastrora does this automatically: The monthly close via WhatsApp + the digital sign-off via the magic link meet both conditions. As long as you send it every month, the 100% rate applies.

Rule 7 · L-GAV Art. 15 Ziff. 5

200-hour cap on overtime

An employee can accumulate a maximum of 200 hours of overtime. Once the balance reaches this limit, the hours above it must be paid out — they cannot be accumulated any further.

Gastrora check: The «Overtime» page marks employees above 180h in red — as an early warning. From 180h, the employee automatically receives a warning via WhatsApp every Monday.

Year-end balances 2026 with rest days, public holidays, vacation, overtime and a payout button per employee — «Year-end balances»: for each employee you see rest days, public holidays, vacation and overtime with entitlement, taken and balance in CHF. Red balances (e.g. −530.50h overtime) indicate critical levels. The «Payout» button starts the payout that settles the balance.

Rule 8 · L-GAV Art. 21

14 days' notice for the weekly plan

The shift plan should be published at least 14 days before the start of the week. Short-notice changes are OK in exceptional cases but must not become the rule.

Gastrora check: As a warning (yellow) — you see when the plan is late, but you can still publish. The warning remains in the audit log.

Hard vs. soft — what Gastrora does when

Gastrora distinguishes between two levels:

🚫Hard violations — plan blocked

11h-Ruhezeit, >50h Woche, >6 days in a row, mandatory breaks, vacation conflict. You cannot publish until they are fixed.

⚠️Recommendations — warning documented

14 days' notice, 2 rest days/week, approaching the 180h cap. You can still publish, but the warning is saved.