More Swiss women than men work on standby

Twice as many women as men work on a standby basis in Switzerland Keystone Archive

A study shows that the proportion of women working on a standby basis in Switzerland is double that of men.

According to the report, which was published by the Federal Office for Statistics on Thursday, 106,000 women worked on call during the second quarter of this year. In contrast, only 55,000 men were employed in this way.

The total number of people working on call represented five per cent of Switzerland’s workforce. Half of these temporary workers were not guaranteed a minimal number of working hours.

However, the report shows that people working on standby complained less about working conditions than their full-time compatriots.

Alarming situation

The secretary of Switzerland’s Federation of Trade Unions, Pietro Cavadini, said he was concerned about the situation. “The high number of people working on call is alarming,” he said.

“There should be clear legislation concerning this type of work,” Cavadini added. “We are discussing this issue with employers, but their readiness to cooperate has been limited.”

This form of employment particularly concerns the hotel and restaurant industry, and other trades dependent on the seasons.

Part-time work

The number of part-time workers currently stands at 1.2 million. This represents a 69,000 increase compared with last year’s figures.

Full-time workers, on the other hand, decreased by 9,000 over the past twelve months to 2.7 million.

Switzerland’s 3.9 million working population increased by 1.5 per cent in the second quarter because of favourable economic conditions. Only 4.4 per cent worked night shifts – 3.9 per cent of those workers were women.

swissinfo with agencies