A Vaud jobseeker who volunteered at the Caribana festival last month has been docked CHF 660.- in unemployment benefits, after his fund ruled the work did not count as real volunteering.
The man had signed up to help set up the festival in exchange for a pass, a t-shirt and drinks, but his fund Unia imputed a fictional wage of CHF 23.60 an hour for the 28 hours he worked.
Unia argues that a music festival is a commercial venture, so unpaid stage-building competes with paid jobs.
The case highlights a little-known rule of Swiss unemployment insurance — volunteer work is only allowed under strict conditions, and specialists warn jobseekers from getting involved at all.
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