Trade unions draw mixed conclusions on the 2025 wage round
Published: Monday, Dec 16th 2024, 11:10
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The trade unions describe the 2025 wage round as a mixed bag. Real wages have fallen significantly in the last three years - they must rise, they demanded. This is because many employees have less money at their disposal at the end of the month due to sharply rising health insurance premiums, they said at a media conference in Bern.
Although there is a slight recovery, the economic upturn is still not being felt by employees in terms of wages, according to a press conference held by Travailsuisse, Syna and Transfair on Monday. The 2025 wage negotiations would do little to change this. Real wages must rise, they demanded.
Overall, real wages could have been defended in around two thirds of the negotiations. In one third, however, there was a threat of a loss of purchasing power. This means that the outcome of the negotiations is mixed. The wage gap of recent years has only been made up in a few sectors.
Despite the economic upturn, purchasing power is falling - an unacceptable development, said Thomas Bauer, Head of Economic Policy at Travailsuisse. The need to catch up will therefore remain great in the coming year, as the wage gap is considerable.
It is true that in sectors with collective labor agreements and union representation, the trend is significantly better. It has been possible to make up some ground in wage negotiations, for example in the main and ancillary construction trades and in public transport, where they are satisfactory.
However, the wage gap is particularly high at almost 4 percent in the healthcare sector, in parts of industry, in retail and in the hospitality industry. "Employees are working to the limit and at the same time have less and less money in their pockets. This development is worrying," said Yvonne Feri, President of the Syna trade union.
The reasons for this are the lack of a collective labor agreement (CLA) in the retail sector. And in the hospitality industry, negotiations on a new collective labor agreement have been on hold for years because employers are resisting improvements to pay and working conditions.
Distributing productivity gains
Travailsuisse demands more than just the preservation of purchasing power. The association wants all employees to be able to share in growing productivity. This is the only way to ensure that the cake that has been created is distributed fairly and wage inequality is kept in check.
The fair distribution of productivity gains is becoming increasingly important, particularly in view of rising health insurance premiums, which have led to a loss of income of around 1.5 percent. Profits should therefore not just disappear into the pockets of shareholders and employers, but employees should share in them.
Transfair President Greta Gysin said that the outcome for public service employees was also mixed. In public transport, it had at least been possible to secure purchasing power in difficult negotiations. However, real wage increases largely failed to materialize this year as well.
The situation looks even bleaker for employees of the federal administration. Public employees, among others, are likely to pay for the savings program with a further loss of purchasing power. Negotiations are still ongoing in the postal/logistics sector.
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