Swiss catering industry pledges living wages

Gastrosuisse President Beat Imhof does not want any "working poor" Keystone-SDA

The Swiss catering industry has pledged to pay workers a living wage, following earlier controversial comments on pay in the sector.

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In a Blick interview, Gastrosuisse president Beat Imhof has contradicted the comments of director Roland Müller.

Müller had previously told the newspaper that living wages were not the responsibility of employers.

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“We don’t want any working poor. If we don’t manage to pay decent wages as an industry, we have no future on the market,” Imhof said in the latest interview.

A collective bargaining agreement declared generally binding by the government is an overall package that not only includes minimum wages, but also many other regulations such as additional holidays, a 13th month’s pay or training and further education.

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The catering industry is also an important driver of integration, as many unskilled workers with limited language skills can quickly achieve higher wages through further training.

The difference to the cantonal minimum wage is often small in the catering industry, and is even higher in the canton of Neuchâtel. “In reality, wages are often already higher because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get any more skilled workers,” Imhof said.

Parliamentary debate

The background to this is the upcoming parliamentary debate on June 17. Provisions in collective labour agreements that have been declared generally binding are to take precedence over cantonal minimum wages in future.

If the bill were implemented, cantonal minimum wages confirmed by the people would be abolished, provided that the Federal Council has declared the collective bargaining agreement to be generally binding for the sectors concerned.

The majority of the pre-advisory committee is in favour of the bill and considers cantonal minimum wages to be a one-sided intervention in the social partnership tradition.

The minority is in favour with social and national policy arguments. The Federal Supreme Court has ruled that minimum wages are constitutional.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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