“Social dumping is the competition by employers in the context of economic globalization of workers from developed countries with the cheaper labor force of developing countries.” – Wikipedia
This is a scandal, especially at European level, including in Switzerland, at the level of private companies, mainly in the transport sector (for example delivery drivers, ...), which work around 60 to 80 hours a week until exhaustion 6-7 days per week and sometimes at weekends. It's hours behind driving hours and parcel delivery with no mandatory rest breaks in most cases, not to mention warehouse hours to load goods, scan products and screen customers. They usually only tell the company in the Worksheet the hours from the time they leave the warehouse. For example, if check-in time is at 2 am, only after a few 2 or 3 hours at best they leave the warehouse for deliveries to the customer. These 2 or 3 hours a day are not accounted for in a good part of companies in this sector, to avoid paying night hours. In addition, they still work overtime, sometimes in hard-to-reach mountain areas, arriving home very late, unpaid hours. Salaries in this sector at the private level are often far below average. An abuse and a scandal, for a profession of enormous risk and great responsibility.
UNIA in Switzerland confirms: “If wage dumping becomes the norm, all workers will suffer. It triggers a downward spiral that puts pressure on all businesses, jobs and wages. Honest employers are forced to cut jobs and training places, and lower wages.”
Unacceptable in a 1st world country! There should be more control.
There are even companies that almost force drivers themselves to take responsibility and costs, such as washing their vehicles, changing their oil and tires.
Many of these employees do not complain for fear of losing their jobs.
These are salaries paid late, outside the normal period, with outrageously low values, unpaid overtime, work overload, increased risk of accidents, in many cases without entitlement to the 13th salary and in often precarious conditions, not to mention black work (undeclared).
The transport sector is not unique in this respect. Also, the laundry sector does not escape this bad practice, particularly with regard to women, who, even in Switzerland, earn less than men in the private sector.
More effective control tools are needed in this regard. What is already being done is not enough. I wonder if control bodies are effectively on the ground full-time to detect blatant and covered cases, especially in subcontracting companies.
Most of these companies act fraudulently and cause the working class to fear denouncing these situations, given their weakness in the labor market.
This misconduct and abuse by companies, which mainly hire foreign labor, use and abuse these well-meaning people who move a country's trade and economy every day.
By contrast, in most cases, employers show signs of extreme wealth, such as expensive cars, branded clothing, a life of constant luxury in the face of tired eyes and the increasingly noticeable poverty of their employees. It is becoming a European cancer and so far with no end in sight, with a severe negative impact on a country's families, working class and economy, which even the Collective Labor Convention (CCT) cannot stop, given the lack effective control in these cases.
The general impression is that the system seems to protect the employer, forgetting that even the employer is affected and even an entire country.
Obviously the cost of living is different in many countries, but the principle is always the same: we are talking about social and wage exploitation.
The quality of a country is in its action and control. In the services and commerce sector it is serious, since this is where most of the working class exists. If a country loses control of these situations, it consequently loses quality and this, in the medium to long term, has serious consequences on a country's economy.
The law must be stronger and put the heavier hand in identifying these cases.
It is for this reason and so many others that the "Gillets Jaunes Movement "was created wich makes a strong pressure on the Government.