Facts
The case concerns a partially unemployed insured person, Maria N., who was employed in a part-time position of 5 hours per day at the University Hospital Zurich and was also seeking an additional part-time job for the morning. The cantonal Office for Industry, Commerce and Labor (KIGA) was of the opinion that it would have been reasonable for her to accept positions as a cleaning lady in a law firm and at another company, as the resulting wages together with the unemployment compensation she was entitled to would have amounted to a higher sum than the compensation without these positions.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court came to a different conclusion. It stated that for the assessment of the reasonableness of a part-time employment in terms of wages, only the offered gross wage is to be compared with the gross unemployment compensation that would be paid out without this employment. The unemployment compensation for the remaining loss of earnings must not be taken into account.
Any other approach would call into question the ability to be placed of the partially unemployed person, as he would be forced to accept a part-time job regardless of the desired scope of employment or the resulting wage. This would overstrain the insured person's duty to mitigate damages and jeopardize the entitlement to unemployment compensation.
Furthermore, such an approach would make it impossible to clearly distinguish between reasonable part-time work and…