Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Having more vacation is bad for the economy? The Swiss think so, but...

Earlier this week, voters in Switzerland went to the polls and said "no" to an additional two weeks vacation a year.

In a national referendum, 66.5% opposed the chance to put Switzerland in line with its neighbor Germany, where employees enjoy six-week paid vacation every year.

The Swiss apparently considered previous warnings of the government and business representatives who claimed that an additional fortnight of paid holidays increase labor costs and put their economy at risk.

 “In rejecting the initiative, citizens have kept a sense of reality,” says Hans-Ulrich Bigler, director of the Swiss Union of Arts and Crafts, which represents about 300,000 businesses, in a statement. The two weeks could have cost the economy 6 billion Swiss francs ($6.53 billion) a year, he says. Full story...

Related posts:
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  4. Singapore and Indonesian workers the most dissatisfied, Swiss employees happiest...
  5. The world's hardest working countries. Insane!!
  6. The best countries in the world for work/life balance: they're mostly in Europe...
  7. The French love going on vacation, the Japanese not so much...
  8. Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?

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