This is an inquiry about the calculation of the FTE in relation to our project in Zurich, Switzerland. In the LEED Reference Guide on page 53 the calculation of the FTE is based on a 8-hour working day. That means that an 8-hour occupant has an FTE value of 1.0. The standard working day in Switzerland contains 8.5 hours of work.In a FTE calculation on the basis that is provided in the LEED Reference Guide the normal working day of one single person would have the FTE value of 1.0625. As a consequence of the, in case of 1000 people fulltime staff this FTE calculation would have additional number of 63 FTE in comparion to an FTE value of 1.0.Is it possible to calculate the FTE value for this project with an 8.5 instead of 8 hour day, so that we would have the FTE value of 1.0 for a standard 8.5 hour-working day?
The project team has inquired if projects in Switzerland may use 8.5-hours as their working day instead of 8-hours as in the US. Each full-time employee based on Swiss and US labor laws works an 8.5-hour day, which includes a half-hour unpaid lunch break and two 15-minute paid breaks. In order to maintain the baseline for projects everywhere when calculating FTE occupancy, all Swiss projects, including those industries that have an overtime work culture for full-time employees, should still use the 8.0-hour work day in their FTE calculations. Applicable internationally.