Plans to attract domestic labour hit snags

Schneider-Ammann is optimistic that the package of measures will be successful Keystone

Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann says efforts to recruit skilled domestic labour notably among women and older employees are on the right track but progress is difficult to achieve.

Presenting a first interim report on a plan launched by the government in 2011 – to boost the number of skilled domestic workers in Switzerland in the face of an ageing population – Schneider-Ammann admitted it was an ambitious project.

“I thought there would be more interest in the plan. But we have not overestimated the potential of the initiative,” he argued.

The report has proposed more than 30 extra measures. They include tax breaks for double-income couples and more childcare facilities, as well making it easier for the unemployed over the age of 50 to find a job.

Two of the main political parties on Friday dismissed the report as bureaucratic and disappointing. The 26 cantons however welcomed the measures, stressing the importance of decentralised and autonomous solutions in line with Switzerland’s system of federalism.

Quota impact

Schneider-Ammann said the government, after completing the first stage of measures, would now move on to “identify the domestic labour potential, invest in it and integrate it”.

He added the programme had been given particular urgency following voters’ approval in 2014 of a proposal to re-impose immigration quotas for workers from European Union countries.

Schneider-Ammann said close cooperation with the cantonal authorities as well as employers and trade unions was crucial for a successful implementation the proposed extra measures.

But he reiterated the government wanted to create incentives and keep its intervention in the labour market to a minimum.

A new monitoring report is due in 2017.