Leaving ETH Zurich

Permanent employment contracts can be terminated by the employee at any time as long as the applicable notice period is complied with. The employer can only ordinarily terminate the employment contract subject to statutory provisions.

Please submit your letter of resignation, in compliance with the notice period, to your supervisor. You will receive confirmation of your resignation from HR Operations, with details of the necessary leaving formalities.

The notice periods are specified in Article 10 and 12 of the DownloadFederal Personnel Act (German) (PDF, 180 KB)vertical_align_bottom and in Article 19 and 20a of the DownloadPersonnel Ordinance (German) (PDF, 1.4 MB)vertical_align_bottom.

If you have any questions, please contact your HR Partner.

A non-permanent employment contract ends after the specified contractual period has passed, unless a special agreement has been made otherwise or an extension has been implemented before the contract expires. There is no need for any notification of resignation. HR Operations will send you details of the necessary leaving formalities.

Please note that it is possible to terminate the employment contract early by mutual agreement between the employee and the responsible supervisor, but this shall only be valid with the agreement of HR Consulting.

If you have any questions, please contact your HR Partner.

If you are leaving ETH Zurich to take up a new job with a different employer, please take note of the following:

PUBLICA pension fund

Your membership of the PUBLICA Swiss Federal Pension Fund will expire when your contract ends. Please fill in the details of your new pension fund on the termination form provided and return it to PUBLICA. PUBLICA will transfer your vested benefits to your new employer’s pension fund.

Accident insurance

Your insurance coverage for non-occupational accidents ends 31 days after you leave ETH Zurich (this applies only to employees who work at least eight hours a week). If you do not enter into a new employment contract within one month, you are obliged to arrange for your health insurance to cover accidents too.

If there is a break of more than 31 days in your accident insurance cover, you have the option to take out interim insurance from SUVA for one to six months. Taking out this insurance requires the payment of a premium, which must be paid on the day on which your ETH Zurich non-occupational accident insurance expires at the latest. Interim accident insurance (external pageonline-formcall_made).

New address

Please inform us of any changes in your address via protected pageETHISlock befor leaving ETH Zurich to ensure that we forward any post for you to the correct address.

If you are leaving ETH Zurich and leaving Switzerland too, please take note of the following:

Notifying local authorities of your departure

Notify your Residents’ Registration Office or District Office of your departure personally and in good time. You can do this up to 30 days in advance. Remember to ask for confirmation of your deregistration, as you will need this for various administrative matters.

PUBLICA pension fund

Your membership of the PUBLICA Swiss Federal Pension Fund will expire when your contract ends. Please complete the termination form provided and return it to PUBLICA. The Downloadinformation sheet Termination of PUBLICA membership (PDF, 33 KB)vertical_align_bottom will give you more information on this.

Accident insurance

Your insurance coverage for non-occupational accidents ends 31 days after you leave ETH Zurich (this applies only to employees who work at least eight hours a week).

Reimbursement of AHV contributions

Foreign employees’ contributions will be refunded on a pro rata basis if they are nationals of a non-agreement state*. Employees whose country of origin does not appear on the following Downloadinformation sheet (PDF, 40 KB)vertical_align_bottom may apply for an interest-free repayment of AHV contributions, provided that they are leaving Switzerland definitively. Contributions are reimbursed on the condition that they have been paid over the course of at least one full year.

_{* States with which Switzerland has not concluded a social security agreement}

Employees from an agreement state** can either claim their AHV contributions in cash and / or claim them upon reaching retirement age (see also the Downloadinformation sheet (PDF, 40 KB)vertical_align_bottom). Residents of foreign countries can obtain the relevant information from their country’s social security institution. Contributions are reimbursed on the condition that they have been paid over the course of at least one full year.

_{** States with which Switzerland has concluded a social security agreement}

Further information as well as the list of the (non-) agreement states can be found on the following Downloadinformation sheet (PDF, 40 KB)vertical_align_bottom.

New address

Please inform us of your new address abroad via protected pageETHISlock befor leaving ETH Zurich to ensure that we forward any post for you to the correct address.

If you are leaving ETH Zurich but not starting a new job, please take note of the following:

PUBLICA pension fund

Your membership of the PUBLICA Swiss Federal Pension Fund will expire when your contract ends. If you are not starting a new job with a different employer, your vested benefits will be transferred to a vested benefits institution. We recommend that you open an account for vested pension benefits at a bank or set up a vested benefit policy with an insurance company. Please send the instruction for opening the vested benefits account together with the termination form provided back to PUBLICA.  

Accident insurance

Your insurance coverage for non-occupational accidents ends 31 days after you leave ETH Zurich (this applies only to employees who work at least eight hours a week). If you do not enter into a new employment contract within one month, you are obliged to arrange for your health insurance to cover accidents too.

If there is a break of more than 30 days in your accident insurance cover, you have the option to take out interim insurance from SUVA for one to six months. Taking out this insurance requires the payment of a premium, which must be paid on the day on which your ETH Zurich non-occupational accident insurance expires at the latest. Interim accident insurance (external pageonline-formcall_made)

If you receive unemployment benefit, you are insured against the risk of accidents with SUVA via the unemployment insurance fund.

Unemployment insurance – employer certificate

If you are leaving ETH Zurich and have no new job in prospect, please contact the relevant external pageRegional Employment Centrecall_made (Regionales Arbeitsvermittlungszentrum, RAV).

The Regional Employment Centre will advise you, explain how you should proceed further, and provide you with all the documents and forms you need. You can send the employer certificate to HR Operations for filling in and signing or inform us by telephone and we will send the certificate to your home address.

The Regional Employment Centre will refer you to the relevant unemployment insurance fund.

Further information on what to do if you are unemployed can be found external pageon this website.call_made

New address

Please inform us of any changes in your address via protected pageETHISlock befor leaving ETH Zurich to ensure that we forward any post for you to the correct address.