Swiss Civilian Service
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Civilian service is a Swiss institution, created in 1996 as an alternative to military service.
Anyone who is unable to do military service for reasons of conscience can submit an application to be allowed to do civilian service. The applicant is then invited to a hearing where he is asked to explain his reasons for refusal. After this hearing, the application is approved should the applicant be found to be unable to be a member of a military service due to the demands of his conscience. In most cases (85 - 90 %), assignement to the Civilian Service is granted. If one is unfit to serve in the military because of physical or psychological impariments, he's unfit for Civilian Service too - even if the impairments do not render the individual unable to fulfill a specific task related to the Civilian Service. This is true, for example, for a handicapped person in a wheelchair who is perfectly able to work in the administration of a nursing home. People unfit to serve in the military have, unless they have a very severe handicap, to pay a substitute fee of about 1 % of the yearly income.
In 2005, the Swiss parliament began to discuss if the hearings about the state of conscience should be abolished and if the willingness to serve a longer time (see below) should be the only criteria, citing big costs for judging the reasons of just a few thousand applicants per year.
Once part of the civilian service program, one has to work 1.5 times longer than the military service period refused. Full military service for normal soldiers is currently 260 days, full civilian service consequently 390 days. Many non-profit organizations are licensed to employ civilian service workers. Unlike the Civilian Service in Germany, where the servants do their work mainly in hospitals and healthcare sites, Swiss ones can apply for work in a broad variety of opportunities:
- health care
- welfare
- environment protection
- agriculture (small or alpine farms)
- research projects
- development assistance abroad
Civil servants must have the appropriate skills for each type of assignement - for example, because there are only very few job vacancies in development aid.
The first assignement has a duration of at least three months, while in the following years one is expected to do service one month per year. If a civil servant is not willing to find an assignement, the administration will impose one.
Because Civil Servants don't sleep in barracks - as the military recruits do - they get a housing allowance. The pay for the work actually depends on the type of labor, which may be higher for skilled servants, while all army recruits get an equal pay. A further stark difference is that the civil servant can profit from his service - in terms of work experience - to achieve a better position after the service, although it is formally not allowed to do civil service with having, for example, the goal of passing an exam in the mind. So, during civil service in a research institute one must not write personal academic papers to be submitted at a later time.
There are still issues with how to handle Swiss living abroad who have already passed recruitment. In this case they are not exempt from military service or civilian service, and every step of the process requires their presence in Switzerland.
External links
- Armee Ade - Organisation to help in case of military problems and for civil service applications
- Government Page for Civil Service - Official Site