It's a very grey area here in ol' CH. A few things to bear in mind:

- How long had she been in employment there?
- What did her contract say about termination?
- Was it explicitly a redundancy?
- How long between her final day and talk of a new assistant?
- Apart from a reference, what did she receive? minimum notice? gardening leave?


Basically an employer can get away with firing someone for pretty much any reason, but shifting that reason will get them in trouble. Either they could afford someone or they couldnt. If they can afford someone again so soon after terminating another, then questions can be asked. 

I'm fairly sure that they have to tell the canton why someone is leaving their employment. SO I would check that too. Basically there are a lot of levers that affect the outcome, so I would suggest talking to someone more qualified, though I have a feeling, that unless they try something obviously stupid, that you might not have much you can "by law". 

"internally" on the other hand... I would fully go down this route. If your assistant " ran the office" then surely having people from the office vouch for this would be easy. Collect enough people, and everything should fall into place and ideally that manager will just admit they made a mistake.

I am just a lay-person, so anyone qualified should feel free to correct me.

If her position was terminated due to restructuring then that constitutes redundancy, which means that it is illegal for your company hire anyone into substantially the same position for two years.

If they get as far as advertising the position then their cheapest option will probably be to re-hire her, rather than to be sued for compansation, which I what my advice to her would be.

So here we go, all depending if it is a "Swiss contract" or if it is an NGO - UN, ect contract.

Diffrent rules apply to the International Organisations.

And top tip; have you actually seen the termination note? All depends on the actual wording.

Pm me, with the actual termination note.