Unions back extension of EU labour accord
Union leaders have defended plans to open the Swiss labour market to workers from the ten new European Union member states.
Monday’s announcement comes after a weekend poll showing that only a third of Swiss support the move, which goes to a nationwide vote in September.
Launching their campaign ahead of the vote, union leaders said that Swiss workers stood to benefit from the labour accord.
“There is a real threat of wage dumping and pressure on working conditions,” admitted Paul Rechsteiner, president of the Federation of Trade Unions. “But the additional measures [approved by parliament] to prevent abuses mean that the state is obliged to block attempts to cut salaries.”
Rechsteiner added that other safeguards included compulsory collective bargaining agreements, the possibility of setting minimum wages and regular inspections of working conditions.
Parliament has already agreed to appoint 150 inspectors to ensure that Swiss companies do not try to take advantage of cheap foreign labour.
Unions said that failure to extend an existing labour accord with the EU to the bloc’s ten newest members would only lead to the arrival of more illegal workers.
“Switzerland needs foreign workers,” said Hugo Fasel, president of Travail.Suisse, one of the country’s biggest unions. “But working conditions must be the same for all and more checks are needed.”
Fasel conceded that with the job market looking less than healthy, workers would require a lot of convincing before agreeing to vote “yes”.
“We can only win if we explain the benefits to people and talk to them,” he said.
Opposition
If a poll published on Sunday by the Matin Dimanche newspaper is anything to go by, those in favour of extending the accord have got their work cut out.
Just over a third of those polled said they would cast a “yes” vote. But 44 per cent of those questioned said they were against, while 21 per cent were undecided.
Many Swiss fear that opening the door to workers from the EU’s ten newest countries – most of which are in eastern Europe – will destabilise the labour market and lead to wage dumping and unemployment.
The existing accord with the EU on the free movement of people, which forms part of a first set of bilateral treaties between Bern and Brussels, came into effect in 2002.
Last week the European Commission weighed into the debate, warning that a refusal to extend the accord could mean the end of a whole series of other agreements between Switzerland and the EU. These include the Schengen and Dublin accords on security and asylum accepted by Swiss voters on June 5.
Campaign
Union leaders also declared on Monday that they would not campaign alongside economiesuisse – the Swiss Business Federation – and Switzerland’s centre-right political parties who are also supporting a “yes” vote.
“We have the same goal, but we are the ones who demanded special measures to ensure proper working conditions. Because of this, we are campaigning on our own,” said Rechsteiner.
Unions added that a “yes” vote would not only prevent abuses in the labour market but also help the economy.
“We could see the economy grow by SFr1 billion ($780 million) to SFr2 billion per year,” said Beat Zemp, head of the Workers Associations’ Alliance. “Unemployment would drop and there would be more tax income.”
swissinfo with agencies
The union movements defending the extension of the free movement of workers represent 850,000 employees across the country.
The campaign committee includes the Federation of Trade Unions, Travail.Suisse, the Swiss Office Workers Association and the Workers Associations’ Alliance.
Free movement of workers is already possible since June 1, 2002, between Switzerland and the countries that were members of the European Union before May 1, 2004.
Parliament has approved the extension of the bilateral agreement with the EU to its newest member states: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.
The Swiss Democrats (extreme Right) collected enough signatures to force a nationwide vote on the issue on September 25.
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