General wage increase in the construction industry
Published: Monday, Nov 25th 2024, 12:40
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The social partners in the construction industry have agreed on a general wage increase of 1.4% for 2025. Because the baby boom generation will be retiring in the coming years, employers are increasing their contribution to secure early retirement at 60.
This will rise by 0.5 percentage points to 6% to finance flexible retirement on the employer side, as announced by the Swiss Federation of Master Builders and the Unia and Syna trade unions on Monday. The employee contribution for early retirement remains at 2.25 percent of salary.
The retirement credits to the pension funds for early retirees aged between 60 and 65 will be abolished. To receive a full pension, employees must now have worked in construction for 20 years instead of 15. There are also incentives to work voluntarily beyond the age of 60.
In the national collective agreement, the notice period for the early retirement model is doubled from five to ten years, which increases the long-term security of retirement at 60. As the social partners also agreed, the employee side will decide whether further restructuring measures will be taken in the form of contribution increases or benefit cuts should these become necessary contrary to expectations.
The outcome of the negotiations applies to all construction companies subject to the national collective agreement and around 70,000 construction workers. The agreement was reached after several rounds of negotiations. According to the social partners' press release, both sides had made concessions to each other.
For the trade unions, the decisive factor was securing early retirement without a reduction in pensions and maintaining purchasing power. The master builders described the result as fair. The delegates' meetings of the association and unions approved the agreement.
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