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FFor Peter Spuhler, the matter is clear: the director of the Swiss railway technology group Stadler Rail considers it “gross negligence” to jeopardize the good connection of the Swiss Confederation with the European internal market. Therefore, Spuhler urgently warns his fellow citizens not to vote in favor of the “limitation initiative” of the national-conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) this Sunday. This endangers Switzerland as a business location.
Spuhler is not alone in this opinion: a wide phalanx of business, association and union leaders reject the SVP’s suggestion to control and curb immigration from the EU from now on through quotas. However, what is special about Spuhler is that the businessman is a member of the vice-presidency and sat in the Berne parliament for many years. But in this case he sees his party overcome. A quota system contradicts the agreement on the free movement of persons with the EU that has been in force since 2002. According to the text of the initiative, this agreement must be terminated within one year from the adoption of the initiative in accordance with Brussels. If unsuccessful, as expected, Switzerland should terminate the contract. However, this automatically meant that other important bilateral agreements with Brussels that had previously guaranteed the strong Swiss export economy largely unrestricted access to the European domestic market were no longer applicable.
“Let’s stop immigration, let’s stop the economy”
According to the SVP, immigration as a result of the introduction of the free movement of persons, which allows EU citizens to work in Switzerland and allows Swiss to work in the EU, has negative consequences for the country, such as increased rents and housing shortages. Trains and roads, loss of local jobs and increased spending on social welfare.
However, in the opinion of most experts, the agreement on the free movement of people has done more than harm Switzerland and its people. In a survey by the Swiss Center for Economic Research at ETH Zurich, around three-quarters of the 209 economists surveyed said the deal was more advantageous from an economic point of view than independent immigration regulation. 87 percent of those surveyed said that bilateral agreements with the EU had a positive effect on the prosperity of Switzerland. According to the liberal think tank Avenir Suisse, Switzerland benefits from the free movement of people in the EU. Since its introduction, Avenir writes in a recent study, real GDP per capita, labor productivity, and export volume have increased year over year. More than half of Swiss exports go to the EU. Immigration was also not done at the expense of local workers. In fact, previous studies have already shown that openness towards EU job seekers has not affected the Swiss salary level as a whole, as newcomers have mostly brought additional qualifications. Until the Corona crisis, the unemployment rate remained between 2 and 3 percent.
The state pension scheme (AHV), which is financed through the pay-as-you-go system, has benefited from immigration to Switzerland. According to surveys by the Ministry of Economy, foreigners from the EU and Efta contribute 26.5 percent to the financing, while retirees from these countries only receive 15.9 percent of the benefits. In unemployment insurance, however, the benefits outweigh the payments. This is because foreigners are more likely to work in industries that are subject to seasonal fluctuations, such as construction and hospitality. The social welfare share of EU citizens stood at the bottom 2.9% and was therefore higher than that of the Swiss (2.2%).
Around 19 percent of EU citizens in Switzerland work in the health sector. Without them, the Covid 19 crisis would hardly have been manageable, Avenir Suisse notes, and concludes: “Losing the free movement of people would reduce security of supply in Switzerland.” In the think tank’s view, a mere free trade agreement between Switzerland and the EU would not be an equivalent replacement for existing bilateral agreements. The latter would offer a much more complete integration into the European internal market.
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Businessman Peter Spuhler fears the enormous bureaucratic effort that the reintroduction of a quota system would entail. “If we are no longer allowed to bring engineers to Switzerland, we would have to relocate areas abroad,” he told “Blick” newspaper, adding: “Let’s stop immigration, stop the economy.” According to the latest polls, almost two-thirds of them want a Swiss vote against the “limitation initiative”.
First paternity leave
Switzerland is the only country in Europe where there is no paternity leave or parental leave. But that’s about to change. This Sunday the Swiss will vote on the introduction of paternity leave. If there is a majority for this, according to surveys, parents can take ten days off for up to six months after the birth of their child. During this time, they are entitled to 80 percent of their previous gross income. As with maternity leave (14 weeks), it is financed with a complementary social security fund, to which employers, employees, the self-employed and the inactive pay contributions. In the past, the Berne parliament had repeatedly rejected requests for paid paternity leave, which also has to do with the traditional model in Switzerland. There, the woman usually stays at home with the child while the man continues to work. This is helped by high daycare fees, which can amount to up to CHF 3,000 per month depending on income. Only a popular initiative calling for a four-week “daddy vacation” allowed politicians to surrender. Only the conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) resisted the commitment of a two-week paternity leave and accepted the referendum. Large companies like Novartis and Swisscom have long given new parents longer days off to remain attractive as employers.
