Unpaid leave

Handling of the first two months of unpaid leave

In the case of unpaid leave of up to and including two months or in the case of longer unpaid leave, the following is applicable for the first two months:

• Your savings and risk insurance remains unchanged, i.e. as it was before the start of the unpaid leave.
• All contributions for savings and risk insurance are to be paid both by you (according to selected scale of contributions) and by the company to the retirement and savings credits as stipulated in the Pension Fund regulations.

Handling of unpaid leave that lasts longer than two months

In the case of unpaid leave of more than two months, you have the following three possibilities for continuing the savings and risk insurance with Novartis Pension Fund for the period of leave beyond the first two months.

Option 1: Suspension of contributions

• For the duration of unpaid leave lasting more than two months, your contributions and the contributions paid by the company are suspended after the first two months have lapsed.
• If an insurance claim is made after the second month of the leave but before the resumption of work, you are only entitled to the vested benefits calculated from the start of the leave.
• In principle, you can make up the gap in the Pension Fund at any time.

Option 2: Continuation of risk insurance

• For the period of unpaid leave that lasts longer than two months, you contributions and those of the company are only continued for the risk insurance.
• The payment of savings contributions is resumed after the unpaid leave comes to an end.

Option 3: Integral continued insurance

• For the period of unpaid leave and of integral continued insurance that exceeds two months, you must pay the company’s contributions for savings and risk in addition to your own.