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★  jp-Swiss-journal  ━　Vol. 87 – May 05, 2007 (Swiss Time)
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【 目次 / INDEX / INHALTSVERZEICHNIS 】

□━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━【日本語 】━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□

スイスの労働環境

明子　ヒューリマン

グローバリゼイションの波が世界経済を大きく揺さぶっている今日、世界が認める「美しい国」スイスの労働環境も変化を余儀なくされている。弊誌[スイス事情「美しい国土を保つには？」Vol. 47 - July 13, 2003]以後のスイス社会の変化、特に労働環境について再検証してみたい。スイスの勤務時間はEU諸国と比べるとかなり長いが、勤労者は日々の仕事を自主的に調整する環境が出来ているので仕事に対する満足度は高い、とつい先日もこのように報道されていた。確かに働く現場でも、上司の指示は最低限で、従業員も自主的な仕事の仕方が当然という雰囲気が定着しているという印象だ。１週間の平均就業時間は、スイスの44時間に対してEU諸国の平均は41時間だそうだ。ドイツは40時間でフランスは39時間のイタリア以下の37時間！尤もスイスでも外資系企業では週40時間が可也行き渡っているという印象だ。が、実労働時間に変化の波が徐々に押し寄せているようだ。

労働者の往来が自由になって以来、当初の予想程ではないにしろEU諸国からスイス人の労働市場に参入が増え、競争が激しさを増してきており、賃金ダンピングの懸念も依然払拭されていない。今やスイスで暮らす5人に１人は外国人だという。そして今年6月からは旧EU諸国15カ国の労働者の制限が無くなる。新しい現象としては、1980年代頃までは高収入の勤労者は低収入の勤労者よりも働く時間が少なかったものだが、現在では例えば外科医は忙しくてお金を使う暇が無いが、道路工事の労働者は充分な余暇がある、などと言われている。そうは言うものの好況に沸く産業界でもブルーカラーの工場労働者に長時間勤務の傾向が出始めているという。高い技能を持つ勤労者で「燃え尽き症候群」という言葉が話題になるようにもなってきた。スイス人勤労者は今後益々国内での競争に晒される事が予想されている。

独自路線を好むスイスとしては珍しく、ほぼ全国一律の雇用契約慣行が実行されてきた。フルタイムとパートタイムは常雇用として扱われ、基本的に待遇の差は無い。ところが、臨時雇用の比率が10年前とでは様相が変わってきており、オランダの2.5%をトップに、ベルギー、フランスに次いでスイスは2%に迫る勢いで、変則的な雇用形態の拡大は社会不安に繋がると懸念されている。スイス社会にはパートタイム勤務を尊重する基盤がある。特に女性が求める割合が圧倒的に多く、柔軟な勤務時間を雇用者と交渉する事は当たり前になっていた。この慣行がスイス女性の就労率の高さを誇る所以である事は確かだ。しかし働く母親にとって未だ厳しい環境である事に変わりは無く、更に、学業では女性の方が優秀だったのに、男女の昇進と給与格差が厳然とある事が度々問題視されている。政府も雇用条件の監視を度々言及しており、働く女性は割に合わないという認識を変えようと、若いキャリア女性の代表格ロイトゥハルトゥ経済相は積極的に改善策を提案するものの、抵抗に遭って思うように進められないというのが現状のようだ。

給与は一般的に年収13ヶ月分が支給されるのが普通で、50%勤務なら常勤の半分。日本のようなボーナスは職種や企業で異なるものの、無いのが普通だった。ところが企業は定期昇給を渋り、ボーナスという一時金を支給する傾向が出始めている。退職金も無いが、定年退職時には日本の退職金に相当する程度の貯蓄を用意出来ている家庭が一般的だった。そうした貯蓄は予備費に充て、日々の暮らしは国民年金、企業年金で生活をエンジョイ出来ていた。「第3の柱」と呼ばれる税優遇預金で住宅ローンの返済に充てる事も可能だった。この辺りの事情も楽観出来ない状況になりつつあるのが伺える。昨年度の連邦税納税義務者の29%は貯蓄無しだったという。資産家の地域偏在も顕著だそうだ。とは言え、州によって著しく税制の違いがあり、統計には表れない留保部分もあるので見かけの数字ほどスイス人の懐具合は悪くない、というのが税務当局の見解だ。他方、近年大企業経営者の莫大な報酬が度々批判の的になっている。ここ数年最低賃金は変わらないのに、経営者の報酬が急増している状況に、相応の利益配分を求める労働組合の動きも活発になっている。

ところで、今や先進工業国でも共通のテーマになっている貧困層の増大は、スイスでも無視出来る存在ではないようだ。スイスの貧困の定義では、独身者は月収2,200フラン、子供二人を養育している片親は3,800フラン、両親が揃っている場合は4,600フランがボーダーラインとされている。家賃、健康保険、衣食費、更に税金と社会保険料を差し引いた後100フランが手元に残るだけの経済状態を指すそうだ。最低週36時間働いて得られるこの賃金水準が低収入勤労者に該当するという。確かに生活実感として、これは正に健康で文化的な生活水準の最低線という気がする。幸いスイスの貧困層は2004年には8.3%、低収入勤労者は4.2%であったのが、僅かに減る傾向にはあるという。それでも国内総生産に占める社会保障費の割合が1992年を境に20%を越え、今や30%に届きそうな勢いで増え続けている。高い資格を持つ勤労者は高い報酬が享受出来る為、今やスイスでも大学進学率が伸び、学士号だけでは充分ではなく修士号、博士号を目指す学生が増えている。

休暇は常勤もパートタイムも通常3週間から5週間の年次休暇が認められているが、法律で20歳以下の若年勤労者と50歳以上の高齢者は5週間と決められている。工場や個人商店、開業医等では一斉休暇を同様の期間取っている。従業員に法律で定められた休暇を取らせていない場合は、会計監査で指摘され、最悪の場合営業ライセンスを剥奪されかねない。休暇は労働の生産性を高める上で不可欠なものと認識されている。ついでに触れると、通常試用期間は3ヶ月で、辞職通告と解雇通知は勤続年数で差があるものの、1年未満なら2週間、それ以上なら2ヶ月から3ヶ月といったところが一般的だ。年金と福利厚生も大事な雇用条件の一つだ。就業時間が異なっても雇用条件は一律が望ましいのは言うまでも無く、この点を無視すると、社会格差を助長し、技術の伝承が途絶え、将来必要な人材の確保に支障をきたす事にもなる。

2007年3月の失業率は3％と低水準ではあるものの、高齢者と若年労働者の雇用機会の減少が問題視されている。高齢者については、求人の際出身国や性別よりも年齢が不利になっていると言われている。それでも55歳から65歳の就業率は、スイスはスェーデンの69%に次ぐ68%で、ヨーロッパの平均値と同じドイツの45%と比べるとぐっと高くなっている。若年労働者の場合は、見習い制度が企業側の採用意欲減退で脅かされているのが社会の懸念材料になっている。社員募集の際に数年の実務経験を求める企業が増えており、新卒者の雇用の機会が確実に狭まっている。商業ディプロマを取得した3人に１人が就職できないというのだから由々しい事態だ。こうした状況を放置すれば、将来国の経済発展は望めなくなると懸念されており、経済界の姿勢転換を促す報道が度々新聞紙面に登場している。今年メーデーの公認デモ行進の後では、300〜400名の若者が暴徒化してツューリッヒ市4区で破壊活動を行い、車２台が放火され、100名が器物損壊で逮捕されたと言う。

好況を享受しているスイス経済だが、企業業績が良いのにそれに見合う雇用が伸びていない。今後益々自由化に向かう傾向にある労働市場の社会へ及ぼす悪影響が懸念されている。経済学者フリードリッヒ・シュナイダー博士によると、2003年の先進工業国21カ国における違法就労の割合は、スイスが9.4%と諸外国の中でも最低レヴェルになっている。尤も最低の米国の8.4%には首を傾げてしまうのだが、平均は16.3%で、日本は10.8%となっている。過当競争は社会を確実に疲弊させる。中長期的な視野に立つ基本的な労働環境が整っていればこそ、国民は安心して健康的で文化的な生活が営め、産業界も潤い、しいては国の発展に繋がる事は論を待たない筈だ。最近の若者の意識調査では、社会の安全と秩序を重視する傾向があるそうだ。様々な変化に晒されながらも、世代間で揺ぎ無い価値観を持ち続けるなら、社会の安定は保たれるものと思う。スイスの資産はこの価値観の継承にこそあると見る。

【参考】

連邦経済労働局SECO： http://www.seco.admin.ch/
日本国外務省/スイス連邦：　http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/switzerland/
フリードリッヒ・シュナイダー： http://www.econ.jku.at/?staff=0800

【編集後記】

日本で、NEET〔young people Not in Education, Employment or Training〕やワーキングプアという言葉、生活保護世帯の増加がしばしば喧伝されようになって懸念を深めていた。スイスでも問題無しという状況ではないものの、未だ大きな変化は無いように感じられる。日本の場合先ずは、極端な中央集権を排し、地方自治の一層の進展を促し、規制緩和への目配りが不可欠ではないかと思う。次号は6月17日に実施される「IV修正案」の国民投票についてお伝えしたいと心積もりをしている。諸事情から今号も発行が予告よりも大幅に遅れた事、何卒ご容赦下さい。

□━━━━━━━━━━━━━━【 English 】━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□


Working environment in Switzerland

      Akiko Hürlimann

Today the wave of globalization is shaking world economy; Switzerland as world recognized <beautiful country> is also forced to change. After having issued our magazine [<Swiss Circumstances "How to keep a country beautiful?"> Vol. 47 - July 13, 2003], I'd like to try doing a further validation about changing Swiss society, especially working environment. Comparing to EU countries, Swiss working hours are rather long. Despite, it was recently reported that Swiss worker are satisfied with their working conditions, because they have established certain self-control about their working environment. Actually, I've got also the impression, that at the working place, employees get minimum instructions by the boss, and people work independently. The weekly working hours are 44 hours in Switzerland, whereas at EU average there are 41 hours. In Germany, it is 40 hours, and in France 37 hours, which is less than 39 hours in Italy! Though even in Switzerland, 40 working hours a week at foreign companies has established.
However, a change of the actual working hours seems to be forced.

Since free movement of labor has come into force, less than expected labors from EU countries have increased on the Swiss labor market; there is however still concern about salary dumping. Today, every fifth people in Switzerland are a foreigner. As from June of this year, restriction about labor force will be diminished against the 15 old EU countries. As new phenomena, it was said that up to about 1980s, high salary workers worked fewer hours than lower salary workers; but today, for instance, a surgeon has no time to spend money, but road workers have enough free time. Nevertheless, as the industry enjoys an economic boom, though there is a tendency that even blue-collar workers at factories have to work longer. <Burn out syndrome> of highly qualified worker is now also talked about. Swiss worker will be involved further in a competition at inland labor market.

It is unusual for the Swiss who like going their own way, however uniformed employment agreements have been enacted nationwide. Working full time and part time, both are considered as permanent employment, and basically the treatments are the same. However, temporary work ratio has changed comparing
to 10 years ago.The Netherlands is on the top with 2.5%, then comes Switzerland with nearly 2%, followed by Belgium and France that draw apprehensiveness of social instability by penetrating irregular employment status. Swiss society has a base of respecting part time work. Especially female workers want to work part time, and it is normal to negotiate with employers about flexible working hours. It is sure that because of that habit, it has enabled the　country to be proud of a higher ratio of Swiss female workers. Nevertheless, the working environment for working mothers is still hard. Furthermore, women tend to be better at school, though the gap of promotion chances and salaries between men and women still exists, and is often mentioned at media. It is acknowledged to be a problem. The government has often mentioned too to observe the employment conditions. Federal Councilor Leuthard, as a representative of young career women, acting to change recognition that working women wouldn't pay, and she's been actively
proposed solutions, however she's been　encountered resistance and could not improve the situation as she wished, that is the actual situation.

Normally, the salary is paid for 13 months a year, and a 50% part-time worker is paid half of a full time salary. It depends on the type of job and company, but no general bonus is common so far. However recently employers tend to hesitate to give annual rises and pay bonuses as a one-time compensation instead. A retirement allowance is also not paid, but at the time of retirement, it's been common that a normal family could save a similar amount of retirement allowance like in Japan. Such savings are considered as reserved fund, and people can afford to pay for household expense by the national pension fund and the company pension fund. With the tax privileged savings, called <the third column>, people can pay back housing loans. Those circumstances gradually seem to be not anymore optimistic. 29% of Federal taxpayers last year had no savings. Wealthy people are also eccentrically located. Anyway, the authorities say that taxation is quite different in each prefecture, and there is also retainment, which doesn't appear in statistics, therefore, the depth of Swiss pocket isn't as bad as it is shown on the figure. On the other hand, huge amounts of rewards for the top management have been often criticized. Since some years, the minimum salary hasn't been raised, but managers' salaries have been substantially risen up; labor unions have beome also active by demanding fitting rewards.

By the way, increasing poverty has become a common theme even in industrial countries now, and Switzerland is also not in an ignorable situation about that issue. Criteria of poverty in Switzerland are as follows: The border line (poverty level) of the minimum income for a single person is at SFr. 2,200. --; for single parents with two children it is at SFr. 3,800. --, and for both parents with two children it is at SFr. 4,600. --. After deducting expense for rent, health insurance, clothes and food, taxes, social insurance, if remains only SFr. 100. --, then, it is considered such a financial situation. Lower income workers are considered to be at that salary level by working 38 hours per week. Regarding to my actual social experience, that must be the border of a healthy and cultural living standard, I think. Fortunately, the poverty ratio in Switzerland was only at 8.3% in 2004, and the figure of working poor was at 4.2%; however the figure tends to have dropped off slightly. Nevertheless, the social security ratio against the GDP had exceeded more than 20% in 1992, and now the ratio has increased to nearly 30%. High qualified workers can enjoy high salaries, so the advancement ratio is increasing also in Switzerland; more and more students think that master's degrees is not enough and aim to acquire even PhD.

The holiday, that is guaranteed to full time workers and part time workers is normally between three to five weeks, however, according to law, young workers below the age of 20 years, and elder workers over the age of 50 years get 5 weeks. Factories, small family companies (shops etc.), practitioners, etc. are closed to same level. In case an employee doesn't consume his holidays according to the law, employers could be pointed out, on the occasion of a financial control, and as an ultimate measure, even business license could be revoked. Vacation is considered as indispensable for producing a high productivity. In passing, the trial period is normally 3 months. The period of giving notice for quit and dismissal depends on the service years, however, for less than one year of employment, it is two weeks, and for more than a year, it is a period of two to three months. Pension fund scheme and welfare program are also an important factor of employment conditions. It is needless to say, that even by different working hours, there should be the same employment conditions. When that point is disregarded, social divide can be fueled, disturbing the dissemination of technology, and disrupting the securement of necessary manpower in the future.

The unemployment ratio of March 2007 was at low level with 3%, but decreasing employment opportunities for elder and younger people is concerned in Switzerland too. It is said, that for elder people, age is a major disadvantage than origin of country and gender at the job application. The employment rate of ages between 55 and 65 years old is at 68% in Switzerland, followed by 69% in Sweden; that is much higher than 45% in Germany as well as the average in Europe. As for younger people, the apprenticeship is in danger because of hypobulia by business enterprises, and that concerns the society. More and more companies demand applicants some years of experience upon job recruitement; employment chances for fresh men become certainly narrower. Reportedly, every third of newly acquired commercial diploma holder cannot get job; that is a fairly serious situation. If such a situation is left behind, there is concern that we will not be able to hope for further economic growth; media have repeatedly reported by demanding business fields to change their attitude. On May Day 2007, after the permitted official demonstration march, 300 to 400 mostly (very) young people turned into thugs, doing subversive activites in district 4 in the City of Zurich. Two cars were set on fire, and 100 people were arrested based on property distruction.

Swiss economy enjoys business prosperity; despite good business results, appropriate employment has not increased. The labor market will be liberated in the future, and people are concerned about bad influence to the society. According to Dr. Friedrich Schneider (economist), the illegal employment (Schwarzarbeit) ratio in 2003 among 21 industrial countries showed, that Switzerland had the lowest level with 9.4%. The figure said for the USA with 8.4% is doubtful, the average is at 16.3%, and in Japan it is at 10.8%. Excessive competition makes the society definitely exhausted. If a fundamental labor environment, based on middle and long-term point of view is settled, people can create a healthy and cultural life without having sorrows, and business fields would enjoy prosperity; that should lead to a nation's progression. Recent surveys among young people showed, that they consider security and public order. Even being exposed to various changes, if the society can keep a stable value judgment, social stability should be assured. I see the assets of Switzerland must be the inheritance of that value.

【Reference】

State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO： http://www.seco.admin.ch/
MOFA of Japan:　http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/switzerland/index.html
Dr. Friedrich Schneider: http://www.econ.jku.at/?staff=0800


【 Editor's comment 】

I am deeply concerned about the widely known words of NEET and working poor, and the increase of welfare families in Japan. As we cannot say that there is no problem in Switzerland too, however, I don't feel a drastic change of the situation yet. In case of Japan, at first, the extreme centralization is to be changed, local governance is to accelerate, and deregulation is to be controlled. I consider as theme of the next issue, the subject about national voting [Revision of disability insurance] that will be voted on June 17. I apology for the delay due to circumstances.

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