One in ten Swiss jobs “unstable”

Nearly 50 per cent of working women are not included in companies' pension plans Keystone

A new study suggests that about 10 per cent of employees in Switzerland are working in unstable conditions.

The Swiss non-governmental organisation, Caritas, has published a report saying that employers often fail to provide adequate social security or job stability.

Many of the employees faced with poor labour conditions work in temporary jobs, standby positions or on short-term contracts.

At a press conference on Tuesday Caritas director Jürg Krummenacher appealed to employers not to differentiate between full-time and part-time contracts and to provide adequate social security benefits to all workers.

More women affected

The report also stated that working women are particularly hard hit, with one woman in six labouring under poor conditions.

Simone Prodolliet, one of the co-authors of the Caritas report, told swissinfo that women were more likely to work part-time.

“We know that many women work in part-time jobs, so we see that women especially are affected by what we call “precarious” working conditions,” she said.

Another author of the report, Carlo Knöpfel, said that nearly 50 percent of working women are excluded from company pension plans.

He called for low wage earners to be included in companies’ pension plans by law and for part-time workers to be covered by their employers’ accident insurance.

Flexible working hours

Prodolliet emphasized that the lack of social security and job stability is more than just a side effect of more flexible working hours.

The report said only a small number of well-paid and highly qualified employees actually benefit from more flexible working hours, and that currently, most people don’t gain an advantage.

“We have found out that the introduction of more flexible working hours is actually producing these kinds of [poor] labour arrangements and that we should look at it closer and find a solution to it,” she said.

swissinfo with agencies