Temp work, the hidden backbone of Swiss construction

I start with the order of magnitude, because it surprises almost everyone. In 2024, 413'437 people had at least one temporary assignment in Switzerland. That is 4.8% more than in 2023. Since many do not work as temps all year, this represents the equivalent of 102'618 full-time jobs, and 207 million working hours.

The profile is clear: 67.4% men and 69.3% foreigners. In the latest swissstaffing survey, the French are the largest foreign group (17% of the temporary workers surveyed), ahead of the Italians, the Germans and the Portuguese. For many cross-border workers, the agency is the way into a first job in Switzerland (I explained it in detail here).

Source: swissstaffing, annual statistics 2024, based on SECO and Suva.

A word of caution here: there is no recent official figure on how many construction workers in the main construction sector (Bauhauptgewerbe / gros oeuvre) are temps. I did not find any public statistics on temporary workers' accidents sector by sector either. So we have to cross-check.

What the industry says. In the swissstaffing survey carried out at the end of 2024, 15% of temporary workers worked in construction. The association itself says this figure is probably too low: small agencies, very present on building sites, are poorly represented in its survey.

What the unions say. According to a calculation by the Swiss Trade Union Federation (SGB/USS) published in 2019, around 10% of employees in the main construction sector are temps on average over the year, and up to 20% in high season, against around 5% in industry. It is a union calculation, and it is dated. But it points the same way as the industry.

What the law says. The clearest sign comes from Geneva. Since 2022, on public procurement building sites, a company that employs at least 21 permanent staff may not have more than 20% temps (L-AIMP, art. 4 para. 6). You do not write a limit like that into a law for a marginal phenomenon.

My estimate, a cautious one: depending on the season and the region, between one construction worker in ten and one in five on a main construction site is employed by an agency. Nobody sees it, because the helmet and the vest are the same.

Because construction lives to the rhythm of the seasons, tenders and the weather. A company cannot keep all year round the workforce it needs in June. Temporary work absorbs these peaks. swissstaffing puts it bluntly: temporary work plays an essential role in absorbing peaks of activity in industry and construction.

We saw it in 2025. Temporary work hours fell by 7.1% in Switzerland, the third yearly drop in a row. Construction, however, was one of the few sectors that grew, and swissstaffing writes that it prevented a steeper fall for the whole industry. When the rest of the economy slows down, the building site still needs hands.

Temporary work is also a way in. In a swissstaffing survey of 6'012 temporary workers (2022), 42% had found a permanent job a little over a year after the start of their temporary period, and 84% were working. Around a third were not looking for a permanent job: they wanted precisely that freedom. For a young person, for someone arriving in Switzerland with an L, B or G permit, or for a cross-border worker, the temporary assignment is often the first contract.

This is where my findings become less comfortable.

They get injured more. In 2024, temporary workers had 117 workplace accidents per 1'000 full-time jobs. For all employees in Switzerland, it is 58. The temps' figure mixes all sectors, and the main construction sector is dangerous for everyone (around 173 accidents per 1'000 full-time jobs in 2020 and 2021, according to the Swiss Contractors' Association (SBV/SSE)). But Suva says it clearly: a temporary worker's risk is higher, especially when they start at a company they do not know. New site, new team, new machines, and sometimes a safety briefing given in a rush.

The good news is that things are moving: 162 accidents per 1'000 full-time jobs in 2013, 117 in 2024. The prevention efforts of the industry and the unions have paid off.

They get less training. Yet training exists. The temptraining fund, created by the collective agreement for staff leasing (GAV Personalverleih / CCT Location de services), pays for courses from 88 hours of temporary work over twelve months. Since 1 July 2026, each hour worked gives CHF 5.00 of credit, up to CHF 5'000.00 over twelve months. You still have to know about it: training you do not know about protects nobody.

They carry more paperwork. Every new assignment means a contract, documents to hand in again, hours to get signed, a payslip from another agency. The rules, however, are clear: on a main construction site, the agency must apply the wages and working hours of the National Collective Agreement (Employment Services Act, AVG/LSE, art. 20), and pay by the 5th of the following month at the latest (details here). But when information gets lost between the site, the agency and the office, it is almost always the temp who waits for their money.

Their status makes them guests. People say "the temp" rather than their first name. They get called on Monday and let go on Friday. Yet many come back to the same sites, for the same companies, season after season.

I am not arguing against temporary work. Without it, many Swiss building sites would not meet their deadlines, and many construction workers would never have had their first contract. I am arguing that we stop treating it as an exception.

In practice, I see four simple things:

1. A real first day. A safety induction on every new site, even for a three-day assignment, since the risk is highest at the start.
2. A file that follows the person. The same documents should not be asked for again by every agency and for every assignment.
3. Training by default. Every temporary worker should know, from their first payslip, how much temptraining credit they are entitled to.
4. The same words for everyone. A temp is part of the foreman's team for the length of the assignment. They deserve the same instructions, the same equipment and the same respect.

This is, in fact, the bet we are making with Onsite: that a construction worker finds their assignments, hours and documents in one place, whatever the agency.

Swiss construction lacks skilled hands. Some of those hands are already here, on our sites, under agency contracts. In my view, the sector has everything to gain by training them, protecting them and keeping them.