Swiss Review 4/2020

Swiss Review / July 2020 / No.4 24 leave for new fathers for the first-ever time. The Paternity Leave Now! asso- ciation withdrew the initiative a year ago to allow parliament to make a counterproposal of ten days instead. This is a compromise, but it still goes too far for some. A cross-party com- mittee, formed in protest against “ev- er-increasing federal taxation”, col- lected enough signatures to force this autumn’s referendum. Fathers should be there for the long haul, say critics Opponents of the proposal are under no illusions that the role of the father is changing in Switzerland. “Many young women today are highly qual- ified and want to continue working after childbirth,” says SVP National Councillor Diana Gutjahr, who runs a business herself and heads the ref- erendum committee with other con- servative and centre-right politicians. According to Gutjahr, the committee have no problem either with the fact that many fathers nowadays want to take on an active family role. Never- theless, she adds: “Ten days of state- funded paternity leave does not nec- essarily turn you into a good dad. Being a father means being there for the long haul – or at least 18 years.” The referendum committee also criticise two specific elements of the proposal, namely that the two-week period of leave would be funded un- der the same income compensation scheme originally related to mater- nity pay, and that the government, in their view, would be meddling in Switzerland’s liberal job market. “Our social security funds are already Politics tractive to young professionals. Phar- maceutical firm Novartis leads the way, giving new dads 90 days of paid leave. Companies such as Migros, Coop and Swisscom grant 15 days. However, there has never been any legislation on paternity leave as such in Switzerland. The law only stipulates 14 weeks of maternity leave. Fathers can still only take one day off to be at the birth of their child. It is at the discretion of the employer as to whether employees also get pa- ternity leave on top. But things could soon be chang- ing, with all fathers in future being entitled to take ten days of paid leave in the first six months after the birth of their child – either all at once or by the day. This, at least, is the voting proposal due to be submitted to the People on 27 September 2020. Over 30 unsuccessful motions Paternity leave has been under dis- cussion for years in Switzerland. Over 30 parliamentarymotions calling for the introduction of paternity leave, or even parental leave shared between mother and father, have been submit- ted at federal level since 2003. Yet all of them have been unsuccessful. On each occasion the cost factor was the most important consideration. The federal government has calculated that the outlay needed to cover the latest paternity leave proposal would amount to 230million francs per year. A popular initiative that was sub- mitted in 2017, advocating four weeks of paternity leave, is the reason why the Swiss electorate can now vote di- rectly on a statutory ten-day period of in debt – we should not be adding to the strain,” says Gutjahr. “The aim of social welfare is to relieve financial hardship and not satisfy every last whim,” she says. Gutjahr also believes that companies would be deprived of the means of offering their own pa- ternity leave to gain a competitive ad- vantage. The yes camp want fathers to be there from the start But it is these individual arrange- ments that supporters of the proposal have a problem with. “Dads need to be able to play an active role in fam- ily life right from the start,” says Swiss Social Democratic Party (SP) politician and chairman of the Tra- vail Suisse trade union umbrella or- ganisation, Adrian Wüthrich. “This applies to all fathers and not just those who can afford to take unpaid leave or whose employers already of- fer extended paternity leave. Switzer- land is the only country in Europe with no statutory paternity and pa- rental leave. Yet Swiss dads now play more of a hands-on role than they have ever done.” Irrespective of the referendum, Hauke Krenz is convinced that it was the right decision for him to stay at home for an extended period when his children were born. “I think you forge a closer, more natural bond with the child that way,” he says. This bond is now even stronger, given that Krenz has since put his job on hold to look after his children full-time. “I don’t want to look back in ten years and regret having missed out on this time,” he says. “Swiss dads now play more of a hands-on role than they have ever done,” says trade unionist Adrian Wüthrich. Photo: parlament.ch “State-funded pater- nity leave does not necessarily turn you into a good dad,” says businesswom- an Diana Gutjahr. Photo: parlament.ch