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🇨🇭 Switzerland /Economy & Trade

EXCLUSIVE: Geneva welfare agency has made people work for free for years

From Le Temps · () French

Translated from French and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Geneva’s Hospice général places welfare recipients in repeated unpaid professional reintegration assignments, describing them as a way to rebuild confidence and work habits.
  • One beneficiary, identified by the pseudonym Jean, held several full-time roles between 2018 and 2022 and received strongly positive work certificates, but no job offer.
  • The scheme has drawn political criticism amid a 700 million Swiss franc cantonal deficit and 40,000 social-assistance beneficiaries.

For years, Geneva’s Hospice général has placed highly qualified people in difficult circumstances into repeated work assignments without pay or employment, calling the arrangements a way to rebuild self-confidence.

Jean, a pseudonym, entered the welfare system in 2018 after his unemployment benefits ended. The former senior sales manager had worked for several major companies in Geneva. Hospice général covered his basic living costs, rent and medical bills, while requiring him to disclose his banking transactions and remain in regular contact with a social worker.

The social worker quickly identified his professional experience and proposed a gradual return to the job market through the institution’s professional reintegration activities, known as AdR. Between 2018 and 2022, Jean held several full-time, long-term positions: administrative clerk at the debt enforcement office for two years, adult trainer at the migrant assistance service for one year, digitization agent at Hospice général for six months, and digital support worker for one year.

return to self-confidence

· Hospice généralThe institution’s stated rationale for its professional reintegration contracts.

Each unpaid assignment ended with an enthusiastic work certificate. Jean was described as reliable, punctual and committed, as well as precise, meticulous and responsible. Another certificate said he had maintained very good relations with managers, colleagues and members of the public. Yet none of the positions led to employment, despite the documented positive assessments.

Hospice général says the AdR program is not designed primarily to find people jobs, even if employment can result. The activities, introduced in late 2006, are intended to restore work habits, rebuild social ties, strengthen résumés, support retraining and sometimes provide training. The system has become part of a wider political dispute, with the right blaming social assistance for the canton’s 700 million Swiss franc deficit, which affects 40,000 beneficiaries.

With the AdR, the objectives are not to find employment, even if that can happen.

· Nadia BarthThe Hospice général spokesperson defended the program’s purpose.
About this summary

Originally published by Le Temps in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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