Swiss voters say no to longer annual holidays

[Lars77]

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/03/11/swiss-holidays-idINDEE82A07I20120311

Swiss voters rejected a proposal to increase employees' annual minimum paid holiday entitlement to six from four weeks on Sunday after firms warned it might hurt competitiveness and threaten jobs.

The initiative was put forward by trade union Travail.Suisse, which argued that four weeks holiday was insufficient because the pressure of work had increased so much in recent decades, causing rising stress and health problems.

But Swiss television said initial figures showed the proposal had been rejected by a clear 67 percent of voters.

The Swiss have a reputation in Europe for being efficient and hard working, a trait that has helped the country attract international companies and do well in competitiveness rankings.

[Selatius]

1. The United States doesn't even have legally mandated paid vacation days at all.

Because the election system is so choked full of corporate cash from the 1%, all the politicians tend to be skewed towards the right wing in terms of enacting policy. Hell, it doesn't even have paid paternity leave for expectant mothers, this in a country full of people who claim to be pro-family. If you want huge donors backing your bid for elective office, you don't piss them off.

This is a pro-corporate state, a two-party oligarchy dominated by money in a privately-run election system masquerading as some kind of real choice.

[liberal N proud]

2. Swiss government is set such that people vote on many more things

The elected representatives do not make the decisions ours do.

It is truly a more democratic society than the US.