Unions demand real wage increases and cost of living adjustments

Despite a record low unemployment rate of 2.2 percent according to unions, all is not well for workers. According to unions, job security alone won’t work if wages are still not enough to live on. The Swiss Confederation of Trade Unions (SGB) called for real wage increases and automatic cost-of-living adjustments for the new year at its annual press conference Monday morning.

In many sectors, wage increases are noteworthy this year. However, the wage gap is also widening. For example, low- and mid-wage workers have lower real wages today than they did in 2016. Only the top ten percent increased.

At a press conference, SGB chief economist Daniel Lampart (53) called for a monthly wage of at least 5,000 francs for those employed by apprenticeship and at least 4,500 francs for all.

The SGB argues that real wage increases and an automatic cost-of-living regulation for companies would be manageable. Economic prospects have slightly improved two years after the corona pandemic. Money for a dignified life is in everyone’s hands. After all, Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world.

Wage negotiations have shown that although employers raise prices, they are budgeting for wages on a small scale. But purchasing power must keep up with production worldwide, otherwise there will be no demand, warns the union federation. In most countries, wages lagged behind inflation.

In the new year, unions will focus specifically on the situation of women in the labor market. “We women are ugly,” said Unia President Vania Alleva (53) at the press conference. Equality goes backwards rather than forwards. “Even if there are some positive pay rounds, they can’t deal with massive discrimination against women,” Alleva said.

Nurses are leaving the industry

The union confederation also demands premium reductions for health insurance companies. Premium increases of 6.6 percent this year are shocking and unbearable for many. “A couple with two children will have to pay 1,000 francs a month for premiums for the first time in 2023,” Lampart calculated.

A trend reversal is also needed in working hours: instead of constantly demanding new exceptions to working and rest periods, employers should rejoin the reduction of working hours to improve employee health and family life.

“300 nurses a month are running away from their jobs because they can’t do it anymore,” Alleva said. The result: overloaded healthcare facilities, reduced quality of care. He described the failure to implement the maintenance initiative as a “scandal” and accused the federal government and the cantons of shifting responsibility.

Stress at work is getting more and more expensive

Nearly one in three working people is now quite or very tired. This is not just a painful development for those affected. According to the SGB, mental and physical stress also resulted in health costs.

According to the union federation, these costs are paid primarily by employees and the public, as employers are not required to pay any health insurance premiums. Estimates suggest that stress and work-related healthcare costs are several billion Swiss francs.

Employers want to make night and Sunday work easier

According to the SGB, workers and their working conditions have been regularly subjected to political attacks for some time. Suggestions from employers’ circles demanded that the rest and rest periods in the labor law be shortened.

Recently, they wanted to increase their night and Sunday shifts under the pretext of energy shortage. Or they wanted to undermine the subsistence level of the cantonal minimum wage, warns the union federation. (SDA/sfa)