ZURICH – Swiss voters rejected a proposal to increase employees’ annual minimum paid holiday entitlements to six from four weeks yesterday after firms warned it might hurt competitiveness and threaten jobs.
The initiative was put forward by trade union Travail.Suisse, which argued that four weeks’ holiday was insufficient because the pressure of work had increased so much in recent decades, causing rising stress and health problems.
But Swiss television said initial figures showed the proposal had been rejected by 67 per cent of voters. The Swiss have a reputation for being efficient and hard-working, a trait that has helped the country attract international companies and do well in competitiveness rankings.
The Travail.Suisse union said the referendum had taken place at a bad time due to serious economic concerns surrounding the euro zone crisis. “For many voters, it was understandable that current concerns about their own jobs took precedence over the long-term welfare of people and Swiss business,” it said. “With their fear-mongering campaign, the opponents of the initiative played with the uncertainty of workers.”
The main employers’ association, which had lobbied hard against the proposal, welcomed the result. “The ‘no’ to the holiday initiative means above all a ‘yes’ to the maintenance of the competitiveness of Swiss companies and the securing of jobs,” it said.
“Adoption of the initiative would have pushed up already high labour costs in Switzerland and burdened business with additional costs of six billion Swiss francs ($6.5 billion) a year.”
It had argued that longer holidays would hurt firms battling to cope with the impact of the safe-haven franc, that has soared since the financial crisis, as some investors flee the euro zone. – (Reuters)