Switzerland - Union calls wage increases “insufficient” - December 31, 2024

The Union Travail.Suisse has given a mixed view on 2025 wage negotiations. It says wage increases in some sectors are insufficient to offset the decline in purchasing power faced by workers. According to a press release, employees in the healthcare, retail and catering-hospitality sectors are particularly hard hit. It estimates that a “significant” wage gap has accumulated in these sectors since 2021. The outlook is slightly brighter for building site workers, carpenters and painters. But even if wage increases have been “extorted” from employers “within the framework of bitter negotiations”, these increases often do not serve to fully compensate for inflation, says Travail.Suisse.

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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.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.