Student summer jobs must not become exploitation!

The Swiss Communist Youth - youth branch of the Communist Party (Switzerland) - whose members are actively involved on the front lines of the student movement - endorses the public statement issued by the Independent Students' and Apprentices' Union (SISA) regarding cases of exploitation affecting students engaged in summer jobs. 

The statement rightly points out that the absence of a statutory minimum wage for underage young workers cannot serve as an excuse for employers to evade paying wages that are fair and commensurate with the work performed by students. Students are, in fact, the most vulnerable group: not only because the summer holidays are often the only period during which they can build a degree of financial independence, but also because they are among the first to suffer from cuts to public transport and education.

We find the testimonies of students employed in demanding sectors such as hospitality for wages as low as CHF 10.- per hour deeply shameful. Even more disgraceful, however, is that the situation is even worse within the public sector, where cases have been reported of wages falling to around CHF 6.- per hour for logistics and administrative work in healthcare facilities, government institutions, and other public bodies. The public sector should be setting an example for private employers, not engaging in even worse practices. The Swiss Communist Youth believe it is futile to rely on the goodwill and honesty of employers: what is needed is legal protection that safeguards young workers through binding legislation.

This is in fact one area where Swiss federalism makes a tangible difference. While the Canton of Ticino excludes underage workers from the scope of its Minimum Wage Law, the Canton of Geneva has adopted a more advanced approach by extending statutory minimum wage protection to this category of young workers as well. The Geneva model should be generalised across Switzerland in order to put an end to these shameful forms of exploitation, while safeguarding a balanced labour market and preventing unfair competition between young and adult workers.

For this reason, the Communist members of the Parliament of the Republic and Canton of Ticino, comrades Massimiliano Ay and Lea Ferrari, have promptly tabled a parliamentary initiative aimed at closing this legal and political loophole. The proposal seeks to ensure that students who work exclusively during school or university holidays are guaranteed a legally protected minimum wage.

Under the current Minimum Wage Act in the Canton of Ticino, statutory minimum wage protection does not apply to underage workers engaged in "light work", nor to apprentices, trainees, or interns. This exclusion leaves many young students in Ticino without even the most basic legal protection during so-called summer jobs, exposing them to derisory pay and outright exploitation.

The Communist Party has therefore proposed introducing a specific legal provision covering students enrolled in recognised educational institutions who work during school or university holidays. While taking into account their limited professional experience and the need not to discourage seasonal hiring, the proposal would nevertheless guarantee these students a protected minimum wage. The measure would apply exclusively to occasional employment for a maximum of 60 days per calendar year, thereby preventing this exception from being abused to replace permanent jobs with underpaid temporary labour. The initiative therefore proposes setting the applicable minimum wage at 75% of the ordinary statutory minimum wage.