With parliament due to debate Switzerland’s package of agreements with the European Union next month, a committee in the upper house has rejected measures intended to protect wages, reported RTS. One has become particularly contentious: stronger safeguards for workers’ representatives against unfair dismissal. Trade unions now warn that they may oppose the agreements altogether.
The economic-affairs committee of the Council of States said on Tuesday that it had rejected measure 14, which was intended to protect elected employee representatives within companies. The proposal was defeated by eight votes to four, with one abstention. The committee argued that it was not directly related to the EU package, despite support from the federal government.
Fabio Regazzi, a centrist member of the Council of States and president of the Swiss Union of Crafts and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, said the measure had nothing to do with the European Union and the Bilaterals III agreements now under discussion. Speaking to RTS, Switzerland’s French-language public broadcaster, he argued that the proposal concerned the International Labour Organisation rather than the EU. It was, he said, a domestic measure that had been inserted into the package despite having no direct connection with wage protection.
Trade unions disagree. They warn that without such a reform Switzerland risks further censure from the ILO. Pierre-Yves Maillard, the Socialist president of the Swiss Trade Union Federation and a member of the Council of States, said the proposal would at last bring Switzerland closer to internationally recognised ILO standards. He accused the employers’ lobby of dismissing rules that Switzerland had undertaken to respect.
Protection from dismissal
Measure 14 would apply to elected employee representatives, members of joint bodies running pension institutions and members of national industry committees covered by generally binding collective agreements. If an employer intended to dismiss one of these representatives, it would first have to begin a consultation procedure aimed at finding another solution. The rule would apply to Swiss companies with more than 50 employees.
Its rejection threatens to upset a laboriously negotiated compromise. The package of 14 wage-protection measures emerged from more than 80 rounds of talks between Swiss employers and unions.
Wage protection is one of the most politically sensitive elements of the broader Swiss-EU package and could determine its fate. The unions have long demanded stronger protection for employee representatives and had made the measure one of the conditions for supporting the overall deal.
A threat to the EU package
Mr Maillard accused opponents of the EU agreements of deliberately trying to drive the unions into the “No” camp. Those who wanted to sink the package, he argued, had torpedoed the measure in the hope that organised labour would turn against the deal. He said recent decisions by committees of the Council of States suggested that some opponents were not genuinely committed to securing an agreement with Brussels.
Mr Regazzi rejected that charge. His organisation, he said, wanted an agreement with the EU, but not at any price. Measure 14 was not, in any case, a red line for the small-business lobby.
Tuesday’s vote is an important warning shot, but not the final word. The package of 14 wage-protection measures must still be considered by both houses.
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RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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