These Jobs are no longer enough to live on

we Call you Cristina*. The 28-year-old Portuguese has lived for one and a half years in Switzerland, somewhere in the Canton of Zurich. You don't want to be recognized, in order not to lose her job at a small cleaning company in Uster ZH. Cristina cleans apartments, stairs, entrance areas of private houses. The minimum hourly wage according to the collective employment contract is 18.80 francs. The permitted maximum working time von42 hours, the modest 3158 francs per month.

However, in many months, Cristina is much less. Because, in your employment contract, not a fixed week, fixed working hours, although the total work of the contract, the is since 2012 for all German-speaking Swiss cleaning companies, binding, prescribes.

violations of the labor law and the CBA

"How many hours will I work a month, is completely different," says Cristina. "I know it is never in advance." Your boss will inform you the night before or even early in the Morning by phone or text message, where you must be. And: "He often says two hours before the work again, he says to me in advance, and pays no wages. It was even said that he called me in the morning to 5 o'clock, that I had to come to 7 o'clock." Because she was sometimes on the way to work and received no pay. Also, the employer is not calculated the travel times from one customer to the other as working time.

all of This is in breach of the labour law and the collective employment contract. And it has Cristina a serious impact. "I have practically no private. I can maintain no friendships, nothing off." Even worse, the financial consequences are not: In bad months, they can barely afford to pay your fixed costs. "I have to restrict myself heavily, even when eating." The cinema, the theatre, the longed-for German language course – all that is in it. So far, they have all bills on time pay. But just because your Partner has a permanent contract as an in-house technician in a Hotel. This means that the young woman has studied in Portugal at the University of accounting, is of him financially dependent. Cristina is disillusioned: "I always thought that in Switzerland everything is well organized, and the rules would be adhered to. Now I have a different picture."

on-call work nimmtam most clearly

Cristina is with her fate alone. Unsafe working conditions, which lead to little wage to live on, to take in Switzerland. The study, published by the research firm Ecoplan end of 2017, on behalf of the state Secretariat for economic Affairs shows. 2010 100'000 people were in a so-called atypical-precarious employment relationship. By 2016, this number had risen to 113'000. The primary increase was due to the growth in employment, according to the study, but also the increase in unemployment from 2013 to 2015 could have led to the increase.

In atypical and precarious working conditions, the authors understand Jobs with uncertain hours of work and wages , which will only be taken involuntarily. Specifically, temporary work, on-call work, under-employment and working from home with a low pay among the middle income of all employees.

The most significant increase was in the on-call work. Precarious working conditions are to be found mainly in the hospitality industry, in the real estate sector and in other services. The cleaning is one business.

image to enlarge

there is A particular Problem in the purification of Hotels. Mercedes, a Spanish woman who works in a large chain Hotel in Zurich, says: "Often we are called in, but if the guests have not left the room yet, can we not start with Cleaning. Sometimes we need to be twelve hours before the place is paid for but only half, so if we brush actually." This is a clear violation of the labour law and the collective employment contract.

Disproportionately affected by precarious work, women, the Young and people with a low level of education are conditions, according to the Ecoplan study. The proportion of employees with a precarious employment relationship has increased between 2013 and 2016, from 2.2 to 2.5 percent. The number of unreported cases is likely to be high. Because it is not cross-border commuters, short-term permits, asylum seekers and persons without a valid residence permit are taken into account. However, they are often in precarious working conditions.

In recent times, several companies have made negative headlines, which were previously thought as a model employer. The Post caused a resentment, by introducing the end of March, for Postman the evening delivery, the on-call work. Instead, as in the past two weeks before they learned according to the "glance" a new two and a half hours in advance of when your shift began. After a wave of protest, the Post had to undo the Change.

The SBB is in criticism

After heavy criticism, too, Migros is on the books, a pocket paid its suppliers of the online stores, Amigos, only money. They have no employment contract and are not insured against accidents. Now the Migros to reconsider the legal construct, and promises higher compensation.

In the criticism of the SBB. The number of temporary employees 1120 is increased in 2014 to 3253 last year. Including long-standing employees who are paid on an hourly basis and only from a third-party company on a temporary contract. You do not benefit from the protection of the collective employment contract.

The Federal man now checks for the Employees in atypical and precarious working conditions are better protected. Which options are eligible, does not want to betray the state Secretariat for economic Affairs. By the end of the year, you know.

* Name known to the editors

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(Sunday newspaper)

Created: 05.05.2019, 14:08 PM