Après avoir passé en revue la réglementation en vigueur en Suisse et nous être plongés dans le débat politique sur l’instauration d’un congé paternité, pour ensuite passer en revue les initiatives prises tant dans le secteur public que privé, nous avons terminé notre analyse en comparant le système mis en place sur notre sol avec celui des pays qui nous entourent.
Dans un contexte de modernisation et dans une société dans laquelle les deux individus au sein d’un couple souhaitent garder un équilibre et des objectifs personnels ainsi que leur autonomie financière, notamment dans une perspective d’égalité des sexes et d’indépendance des femmes, il est nécessaire que les politiques familiales mises en place par les États permettent aux deux parents de se partager les tâches liées aux enfants et au
231 CONSEIL FÉDÉRAL, Message concernant l’initiative, FF 2018 3825, 3842.
232 Cf. infra D, p. 45.
233 Cf. infra D, p. 45.
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ménage. Comme nous l’avons vu, un tel partage engendre une hausse du taux de participation des femmes sur le marché du travail, permet aux couples de demeurer modernes et égalitaires même après la naissance d’un enfant et de revisiter les conceptions des rôles traditionnels occupés par les hommes et les femmes ancrées dans notre société tout en garantissant le bien de l’enfant, qui développe de meilleures facultés cognitives et émotionnelles si ses deux parents prennent soin de lui durant ses premières années. Dans l’élaboration de leurs politiques familiales, les États doivent donc poursuivre un faisceau d’objectifs pour le bien de leur population tout entière : femmes, hommes et enfants.
Or, justement, le congé paternité, pour peu qu’il soit rémunéré et d’une certaine durée, produit tous ces effets positifs, tandis que la réglementation actuelle du CO qui prévoit un congé variant entre 1 et 2 jours est insatisfaisante. La plupart des acteurs politiques suisses s’accordent d’ailleurs sur ce point : tant le comité d’initiative, le Conseil fédéral que l’Assemblée fédérale reconnaissent les bienfaits du congé paternité du point de vue de l’égalité des sexes, du bien de l’enfant et d’un point de vue sociétal. Néanmoins, les désaccords portent sur la question des coûts d’une telle mesure : ceux qui s’opposent à son adoption invoquent des arguments économiques à teneur desquels un congé paternité représenterait un frein trop grand à l’économie du pays, que ce soit en augmentant de façon trop importante les cotisations sociales ou en limitant la liberté organisationnelle des entreprises. Pourtant, au vu de l’impact que le congé paternité pourrait avoir sur plusieurs plans, l’argument des coûts ne fait pas le poids, d’autant plus pour un pays particulièrement riche comme la Suisse alors que tant d’autres, spécialement autour de nous, l’ont déjà mis en place. En tout état de cause, ce n’est pas parce qu’une mesure essentielle et nécessaire est coûteuse qu’elle est irréalisable. Il s’agit simplement d’un choix de priorité. Or, nous avons non seulement pu constater le besoin, au niveau national, d’un congé paternité légal, mais nous pouvons également affirmer que la Suisse est – contrairement à son habitude – mauvaise élève sur la scène européenne. Son inaction est donc doublement contestable.
Néanmoins, cette inaction est susceptible d’être chamboulée par les votations du 27 septembre 2020. Toutefois, si la perspective de l’adoption d’un congé paternité à cette date est plausible, elle demeure incertaine. L’idéal serait ainsi de voir le peuple et les cantons suisses se prononcer en faveur d’un congé paternité de 4 semaines, qui représenterait une avancée remarquable pour notre pays qui n’a mis en place le congé maternité qu’en 2005, après cinquante ans de débats. La solution de repli serait le Contre-Projet, proposant 2 semaines de congé. Il s’agirait d’un bon début, ouvrant la porte à de plus amples débats, à une modernisation progressive des mœurs et à la répartition des tâches en Suisse, bien que le projet soit trop peu ambitieux selon nous au vu des ressources dont dispose notre pays. Le simple fait d’instaurer un congé paternité, bien que trop court, prouverait toutefois que la Suisse est consciente de certains enjeux. Dans le cas de figure le plus négatif, aucun des deux projets n’obtiendrait les majorités requises. Il faudrait alors poursuivre le débat de plus belle, renseigner le corps électoral sur les enjeux et se battre pour faire évoluer les mentalités petit-à-petit. Les votations de septembre 2020 seront ainsi le baromètre du niveau d’évolution des mentalités suisses au sujet des rôles occupés par les femmes et les hommes dans une famille.
35 DÉCLARATION DE NON-PLAGIAT :
Je déclare que je suis bien l’autrice de ce texte et atteste que toute affirmation qu’il contient et qui n’est pas le fruit de ma réflexion personnelle est attribuée à sa source et que tout passage recopié d’une autre source est en outre placé entre guillemets
Clara SAMSON
36 I. Annexes
A. Chronologie de l’Initiative 234 Date Phase de la procédure
24.05.2016 Début de la récolte des signatures de l’Initiative
02.08.2017 Aboutissement de l’Initiative
01.06.2018 Message du Conseil fédéral relatif à l’Initiative
15.04.2019 Rapport de la Commission de la sécurité sociale et de la santé publique du Conseil des États eu égard au Contre-Projet
22.05.2019 Avis du Conseil Fédéral sur un potentiel Contre-Projet et sur l’Initiative
27.09.2019 Arrêté du Parlement recommandant le rejet de l’Initiative et l’approbation du Contre-Projet
07.10.2019 Retrait conditionnel par le comité d’initiative de son texte à condition que le Contre-Projet soit accepté
23.01.2020 Expiration du délai référendaire contre le Contre-Projet
23.01.2020 Dépôt d’un référendum contre le Contre-Projet 04.02.2020 Aboutissement du référendum contre le Contre-Projet
27.09.2020 Votations fédérales sur le Contre-Projet
234 Tableaux récapitulatifs de la procédure relative à l’Initiative et au Contre-Projet : [https://www.bk.admin.ch/ch/f/pore/vi/vis468.html] (28.03.2020),
[https://www.bk.admin.ch/ch/f/pore/rf/cr/2019/20191310.html] (28.03.2020).
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B. Tableaux récapitulatifs des initiatives dans les secteurs public et privé en matière de congé paternité
Tableau 1 : Nombre de jours payés de congé paternité dans le secteur public en 2019 (Confédération, cantons, villes)235
Tableau 2 : Évolution du congé paternité dans les cantons et les villes236
235 TRAVAIL.SUISSE, Factsheet, p. 3.
236 TRAVAIL.SUISSE, Factsheet, p. 4.
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Tableau 3 : Règles sur le congé paternité dans les CCT importantes (2019)237
Tableau 4: Nombre de jours de congé de paternité payés en fonction de la proportion de salariés soumis à une CCT (2019)238
Tableau 5: Congé paternité accordé par les grandes entreprises en semaines239
237 TRAVAIL.SUISSE, Factsheet, p. 1.
238 TRAVAIL.SUISSE, Factsheet, p. 2.
239 BUSSY/JACQUET, p. 1.
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Tableau 6 Congé paternité dans les grandes entreprises en jours240
240 TRAVAIL.SUISSE, Factsheet, p. 5.
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C. Interview de Johan EGGER, Senior Manager dans une multinationale ayant son siege à Genève241
Clara: If you agree to it would be great to have just a quick presentation about yourself because I’ve read that you grew up in Sweden and that you took your paternity leave when your daughter was born but I guess there might be other interesting things to know about you.
Johan: I can tell you a little bit about my paternity leave experience, but I’ll start with a little bit about myself. My name is Johan Egger and I grew up in Sweden […]. I started with the firm I work for in 2005 in Geneva. I’ve done a couple of years in Stockholm, but I’ve been here most of the time.
About my paternity leave experience, growing up in Sweden, where paternity leave is the rule rather than the exception, I knew I wanted to take more than the two weeks my employer offered at the time […]. Growing up in Sweden I had seen, both formally and informally, the positive effects that paternity leave has on society and on families. So, in the Nordic countries, more than 90% of men take a paternity leave. And research has proven that it not only builds a stronger father – child relationship but it also builds more equal homes. Fathers who take more paternity leave are also more likely to carry a more equal burden of childcare tasks long after the leave has ended. I believe it’s not only an investment in your child, it’s an investment in your family and in society as well.
Paternity leave is also proven to contribute to more fair and equal workplaces. What you often see is, in many career driven companies, with benchmarking of people, if a woman has been out for a long period of time after giving birththat can be perceived as a disadvantage for her. People won’t intentionally do so, and I would like to think that they disregard it, but it’s still a fact that if someone is out for a long period of time it may at some point be held against her or him either in performance or formally. By men being out, not only do you improve equality in the home, but you also help building it in the workplace.
Actually, according to a really good article in the Economist, one of the best ways to improve women’s career prospects is paternity leave. Because it makes men more likely to take equal responsibility, it makes men more likely to be home when the child is sick, it makes nicer men, I think. But also in the workplace it evens out some of the elements.
[…] So, at the time I knew I wanted to take more than two weeks of paternity leave. I wanted to figure out what I could do long time ahead. I wanted to take two weeks after my daughter was born but I also wanted to take two months after my wife had been out, not at the same time as her. Because the idea in my mind is that the child should get an extended period at home with the parents. I wanted to take my extra-two months right after my wife. I started planning for it almost a year before. Before my daughter was born, I started to ask my employer what the rules were.
First, I had to understand if it was possible. And when I engaged with HR, I was not only surprised that it was possible but something that my employer was very supportive of.
241 Note : le présent dialogue reflète uniquement les positions personnelles de Johan EGGER et non celles de son employeur.
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The second step was a little bit scarier, because I had to talk to my managers […] and I was concerned about how they would react. I was concerned that they wouldn’t consider me as dedicated to the business as I had been, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to come back to the role I was in, but I was very positively surprised. Both of my managers were [ok with this project] as long as I organized myself for the time I would be out.
So with that in place, I could plan the next eight or nine months, where I knew I would be out in March and April 2017. Where I could close projects before that date I did, where I could delay projects after that date I did it had other people trained to cover my job.
On the 1st March 2017 when my wife got back to work is the date I started my paternity leave. I think it can easily be qualified as the best time of my life. What you get when it’s just the two of you [you and your child] is just incredible. When your partner is not there, you’re forced to take full responsibility. There was no wife I could ask because she was at work.
Clara: Does that last on the long term? One of the arguments of the initiative committee is actually that if you change the dynamics at the beginning of the child’s life than it lasts on the long term.
Johan: Yes, and that’s an argument the Economist is making about it. […] It’s difficult for me to judge because we are one family with one child. I do believe that we’re quite an equal family, as my wife is from Denmark so we were quite equal from the beginning.
But I feel that those two months gave me confidence on educating our daughter much earlier and I think it’s still a benefit now. At some periods she still wants “Mom” and at some periods she still wants “Dad” just like kids in general. But I do feel that both of us know how to take full responsibility.
I came back to work and again I had a lot of good surprises. I was not surprised that the firm worked well without me obviously, to be honest most of us are not that critical. I have never felt that my managers thought less about me because I had taken some time off, which was a good reassurance. I’ve also gotten positive remarks from female colleagues but also from men and fathers-to-be have often reached out to me to talk about my experience. What was cool about that was that they were not from Scandinavia. One of the guys who did it after me was Italian, another one was Swiss and that was really encouraging.
After that, my employer really wanted to be an early mover and they spent time looking for what the good approach would be. I was involved in defining the policy and shared my experience. Other men shared their experiences too and we were all very well received. Last year my employer put into place a policy of 8 weeks of paternity leave fully paid. If you take your paternity leave, you have to take at least 7 weeks at once because the idea is that you take a good amount of time to get to know your child. Now I know a lot of men are taking it and it’s changing quite fast. And what I find is happening pretty quickly in my company and hopefully in other companies moving in the same direction is that it’s gradually becoming the default choice to take your paternity leave.
We’re only two years away from what used to be a scary choice but now it’s becoming the rule. If you can get 8 weeks with your child fully paid, you need to have a pretty good excuse not to take your paternity leave! […] So if you don’t take your weeks, you’re
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basically saying it’s more important to be at work than to be with your child. That shift of minds is going to travel up in the organization and more and more people are going to be progressive. And that’s quite exciting.
Clara: One of the major arguments of the Federal Council is that a paternity leave would be too expensive and too complicated to organize especially for small firms.
What do you think about those arguments?
Johan: From the company point of view, paternity leave is a smart investment. I work on Gillette, in my day to day job. So I study men a lot. We do a lot of research on men. One of the things that is more and more obvious when you talk to GenZ men, so 18-24 years old men, money is less and less of a criterion when considering companies for a career.
I’m not saying it’s not a criterion, I’m saying it’s not the only one. It was a really important criterion for Gen-X, still quite important to Millennials, but with GenZ, they want the company to stand for something more. I believe that a company taking the stand and stepping forward for equality in the workplace and in society is an incredibly powerful story to recruit strong talents. I believe GenZ will consider a company that has paternity leave more attractive than another one, given that the salary is the same or even if the salary is a little bit lower. I think it’s a smart investment.
Beyond recruitment, it also buys loyalty. When I came back from my paternity leave, I was more loyal to my employer than ever before. Because they have really shown that they care about me and my family. That made me want to work harder, that made me less likely to go look for another company. So, I think having paternity leave is better than adding an extra-bonus or giving a better salary.
For the State, it’s interesting. For Switzerland more specifically, one of the easiest things to spur economic growth would be to have more women working full time. In Scandinavia the participation rate of women in workplaces is much higher than it is in Switzerland.
And the reason for that is that unfortunately the childcare and education system is not set up for households where both men and women work full time. The system as it is leads to a higher proportion of women not working full time.
I think investing in paternity leave means investing in more equal families. It means investing in a more equal society where men and women take a similar burden – a more equal burden because perfectly equal is a long road to go, even in Sweden where they made a step in the right direction – will increase a female participation rate in the workplace. That will pay for everything. A society that supports women working will pay [for the increase of costs of paternity leave]. Then it’s true that if the Mom is not home to take care of the child, someone else will take care of the child and that has a cost too. The math is difficult, but I think that there are only examples of countries that show that the investment is worth it. I would not get stuck on Swiss francs alone, though I think paternity leave can be beneficial for the economy, Switzerland can invest more in workplace equality, in more equal homes and in a more equal society. It’s an investment in women as much as men.
Clara: Do you think paternity leave can lead to reverse gender stereotypes in the long term?
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Johan: Yes. I think it sets us up for a more modern society where men and women take more equal responsibility and where women are not held back by old day-to-day habits.
And you know, on the whole employment question, I was interviewed by LeTemps and what was interesting is they asked me if I would work for a company that did not offer paternity leave and I said no. If someone offered me 0 days, which some companies still do in Switzerland, I wouldn’t want to work for the company because it says a lot about their culture. What time are we living in?
Clara: The Federal Council says that the same goals of gender equality could be reached by developing nurseries and out-of-home care. What do you think about it?
Johan: I think that childcare structures and an education system set up for two working parents can help. I don’t think that’s wrong. In the public schools in Geneva, there is no schools on Wednesday for example. There are some private schools that help parents but not everyone has the opportunity to pay the fees. So, it means that one parent has to be home on Wednesdays. And in most cases that will be the women.
So, the woman in the couple will work 80% and the man 100%. So, when employers look for who to promote, they will rather promote a man that has been working full time for ten years than a woman who works at 80% only. The woman will then be held back and
So, the woman in the couple will work 80% and the man 100%. So, when employers look for who to promote, they will rather promote a man that has been working full time for ten years than a woman who works at 80% only. The woman will then be held back and