Swiss household employment
Accidents outside work (NBU): from how many hours and who pays
Also written: NBU · AANP · AINP
What is cover for accidents outside work (NBU), and when is it compulsory?
Cover for accidents outside work protects the person you employ, your Helper, in their own home, in traffic and in sport. It is compulsory once they work at least 8 hours a week for your household. Accidents at work are insured from the first day, whatever the hours.
Who pays the premiumWhat it means if you employ someone at home
Below 8 hours a week with your household, your household owes no premium for accidents outside work, so nothing is deducted from the wage for it. From 8 hours, it owes this premium to the insurer and usually deducts it from the wage.
How the hours are counted
Only the hours with your household count. Hours your Helper works for other households are never added to them, and exactly 8 hours a week is enough for the cover.
When the hours vary, the insurer decides on the cover at the date of an accident. It looks at the kind of job and the hours agreed with you. It also looks at the hours worked in the 3 or 12 months before the accident, whichever is better for your Helper. The insurer treats your Helper as covered if either is true: their average with your household reached 8 hours a week, or most of their weeks reached 8 hours. If they worked in most of the weeks, the average leaves out the weeks without work. Insurers apply this as their shared practice under the accident insurance ordinance, and the Federal Supreme Court found it not unlawful.
Below 8 hours a week
Your household's policy covers your Helper only for accidents at work and occupational disease.
An accident on the way to or from work counts as an accident at work, so your policy covers it.
Other accidents fall to the accident cover in your Helper's own health insurance, so they should keep that cover unless another employer insures them for accidents outside work.
Who pays the premium from 8 hours a week
Your policy then also covers accidents outside work, and a premium for that cover is due.
Federal law puts this premium on the employee. You owe the insurer the whole premium. You may deduct the part the employee bears from the wage only in the same pay period or the following period.
When the work with your household ends
When the work with your household ends, tell your Helper that they can extend their cover for accidents outside work with the accident insurer.
They must agree the extension before the cover ends, for up to 6 months, and the insurer must offer it.
Before the work ends, or before the hours drop below 8 hours a week, tell your Helper in writing that they must let their health insurer know their accident cover through you is ending. If you do not, the health insurer can charge your household the accident part of its premium, with interest, for the time until it learns that the cover ended.
Cover does not stop on the last day of work. It runs on for a period the law sets, counted from the last day with a right to at least half the wage.
That period is 31 days.
A daily allowance that replaces the wage counts as wage, so cover continues while it is paid.
Sources: Bundesgesetz über die Unfallversicherung (UVG), Art. 3, 7, 8 and 91; Verordnung über die Unfallversicherung (UVV), Art. 7, 8, 13, 72 and 99; Bundesgesetz über die Krankenversicherung (KVG), Art. 1a, 8 and 10; Verordnung über die Krankenversicherung (KVV), Art. 11; the insurers' Recommendation 7/87 on irregular employment and the Federal Supreme Court ruling BGE 139 V 457; the AHV/IV leaflet on compulsory accident insurance; the Federal Office of Public Health page on who is insured; and the cantonal standard contracts for household work.
Checked on 15 October 2026
Common questions
Can I pay this premium instead of my Helper?
Yes. The law allows an agreement in the employee's favour. In some cantons, the standard contract for household work puts part or all of this premium on your household, so check your canton's contract.
Should my Helper drop the accident cover in their own health insurance?
Only while they are insured through your household for accidents outside work. They may then ask their health insurer in writing to suspend it. Their health insurance accident cover applies again by law as soon as the cover through your household ends.