The Swiss Employers’ Association wants to tackle labour shortages with longer working hours and other incentives to get people into the labour market. Around 120,000 positions in Switzerland are currently unfilled due to a shortage of skilled workers. According to the employers’ association, this figure could rise to half a million by 2030. It added that the situation is worsened by people working less hours due to a boom in part-time employment and various other forms of holidays. The Swiss Trade Union Confederation rejected the idea of working more. It said working conditions and the organisation of the working environment needed to be improved in order to reconcile career and family and to ensure that people are not working so hard that they get sick on the job. Wage increases are also overdue, especially for those with an apprenticeship qualification, the unions claimed.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
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