CEA
Negotiations between Swisscom, the syndicom trade union and the transfair employee association on the new collective employment agreement (CEA) have now been concluded. The agreement, which comes into effect on 1 January 2024, now includes parental leave, more days of annual leave, a strengthening of flexible working time models and other improvements.
Lower row, from left to right: Robert Métrailler, transfair; Klementina Pejic, Swisscom; Daniel Hügli, syndicom Upper row, from left to right: Susanna Meierhans, transfair; Olivia Stuber, transfair; Lisa Lamanna Merkt, Swisscom; Teresa Dos Santos Lima-Matteo, syndicom
The Swisscom CEA has been revised and updated with the aim of offering attractive and modernised conditions of employment to the 10,000 employees subject to the CEA. The most important updates include a strengthening of flexible working time models and additional maternity, paternity and adoption leave. Parental leave is also introduced for same-sex couples or if both parents work for Swisscom, there is a new structure and slight increase in leave. The education allowance has also been increased in the new CEA, which enters into force on 1 January 2024.
Swisscom has long accommodated flexible working models and part-time work. This will be further strengthened in the new CEA. If employees wish to change their employment level, Swisscom will seriously consider any request, subject to operational feasibility. A request for a change in employment level may only be rejected with a written justification from the line manager. Furthermore, from 2024 to the end of 2026, employees aged 60 and over will be eligible for the partial retirement model, whereby their employment level can be reduced with or without taking partial retirement. Swisscom will finance a portion of the difference in hours worked to reduce the financial impact. In addition, meetings on the organisation of working time will be continued in the coming months and the implementation of possible pilot projects will be discussed.
Depending on their age, employees will now receive between one and three more days of annual leave. Maternity leave will be increased from 18 to 20 weeks, paternity leave from three to four weeks and adoption leave from two to four weeks. If both parents work for Swisscom, the 20 weeks of maternity leave and 4 weeks of paternity leave will be combined into a more flexible parental leave totalling 24 weeks. In the case of same-sex female couples, the mother’s partner will be granted parental leave of four weeks; for same-sex male couples, paternity or adoption leave of four weeks will be granted.
The annual minimum wage is now CHF 54,600 gross instead of CHF 52,000 and the education allowance is now CHF 290 per month per child instead of CHF 250, unless the applicable cantonal law provides for a higher allowance.
Klementina Pejic, CPO Swisscom: "I would like to thank the social partners and the negotiating delegation for the constructive negotiations and positive outcome. We already offer our employees very fair, modern and attractive conditions of employment. We have now expanded some of these conditions to maintain our position as one of the top employers in Switzerland.”
Daniel Hügli, Head of ICT at syndicom: “We have succeeded in further reducing the net working time. For partial retirement, we have incorporated new working time models in the collective employment agreement for the benefit of employees. This additional leave and annual leave will help to further improve the work/life balance of employees. Over the coming months, we will look at potential pilot projects around the future organisation of working hours.”
Contact:
Daniel Hügli, Head of ICT and Member of the Executive Board at syndicom,
+41 79 833 40 66, daniel.huegli@syndicom.ch(opens in new tab)
Net working time includes the total annual working time, less holidays, leave and public holidays.
Robert Métrailler, Head of ICT at transfair: “transfair came into the CEA negotiations with the aim of ensuring that all Swisscom employees could benefit from the improvements. The employee association achieved this goal. Besides the additional annual leave, family policy aspects such as the increase in maternity, paternity, adoption and parental leave, as well as new working models, are particularly worthy of note. The employees now have a collective employment agreement that meets today's family requirements.”
Contact:
Aline Leitner, transfair Media Officer,
aline.leitner@transfair.ch(opens in new tab), +41 79 474 51 63;
Marika Schaeren, Head of ICT,
marika.schaeren@transfair.ch(opens in new tab), +41 79 247 35 30