Wage protection regulated, SVP initiative countered: Federal Council revives old EU alliance
Dispute over wage protection included, SVP initiative countered: How the Federal Council revives the old EU alliance
With two decisions on the same day, the Federal Council prepares the terrain for the new contracts for continuation of the bilateral path with the EU. But there are still stumbling blocks.
Presented the social partners’ wage protection compromise in a good mood: SVP Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin and Helene Budliger Artieda, State Secretary for Economy. (Bern, March 21, 2025)
It has been seven years since the scandal. Under protest, the unions left the negotiating table in summer 2018: The bourgeois federal councils Ignazio Cassis and Johann Schneider-Ammann are ready to disclose wage protection in Switzerland for the framework agreement. Further discussions with the employers are pointless.
The SP with President Levrat uncondently stood on the side of the unions. It was the beginning of the end of the framework agreement. The Federal Council finally sank this in spring 2021.
Well, four years later, the unions are back on board. Under the patronage of the Federal Council and guided by State Secretary Helene Budliger Artieda, they have agreed on 13 measures to secure wage protection in Switzerland in months of negotiations with the employer and the trade association.
On Friday, the Federal Council approved this package of measures by the social partner and added a fourteenth point to him: Representatives should benefit from better dismissal protection in the future.
It is a breakthrough for the EU contracts newly negotiated since 2022 to stabilize the bilateral path. Because he prepares the terrain on which the old alliance, which has been proven for decades, can find itself again for the bilateral. The alliance from SP, Greens, GLP, middle to the FDP. In other words, the alliance all against the SVP.
But it is not that time. It has not yet been officially decided whether the FDP and middle will support bilateral III, as the contractual work is called by supporters. There are skeptical forces in both parties. And the package of measures for wage protection should also ensure debates. Because both the new bilateral and wage protection will only send the Federal Council to consultation in June – later the parliament will deal with it. There is a risk of falling.
Because especially with wage protection, it is a compromise on which both sides have to bite. For example, the unions could not enforce their demands to explain all total employment contracts more easily. This is only introduced to existing total employment contracts, GAV. On the part of the employer and the trade association, the dismissal protection, which is prescribed by the Federal Council, met with resistance for representatives of the employees. It is still a fragile construct.
After all: On request, Mitte-Nationalrat and President and Middle National Councilor Fabio Regazzi says: « The social partnership lives. » The employers’ association welcomes “the social partnership solution as a profit” for employees and employers. Union President Pierre-Yves Maillard, meanwhile, speaks of a “restart”. And Adrian Wüthrich, President of the workers’ umbrella organization Travail Suisse says: « The hand is stretched out from our side. »
However, if the parliament reopens the package of measures and remove individual points from it, it is « a game with the fire », warns trade unionist Wüthrich. And Maillard also says, should there be cuts in the wage protection « we reserve the right to say no about the stabilization package for the bilaterals ».
Before the media, Minister of Economics Guy Parmelin presented the result of the negotiations of the social partners. In the background he had personally campaigned for an agreement. Asked why he was so committed, he said that he received the order from the Federal Council to secure wage protection. «We have achieved that. Mission fulfilled, nothing more and nothing less. »
SP Federal Councilor Jans sounds like the FDP
Justice Minister Beat Jans had already kicked the media in Bern on Friday afternoon one hour before Parmelin. He presented the message to the sustainability initiative: If the population in Switzerland increases over 10 million before 2050, the SVP wants to end the free movement of people with the EU. The Federal Council rejects them without a counter -proposal. With measures in the asylum area, in the housing and labor market, he wants to contain negative consequences of immigration.
Warns urgently against the SVP initiative against 10 million Switzerland: Federal Councilor Beat Jans. (Bern, March 21, 2025)
In his presentation, the SP Federal Councilor of Jans sounded as well as the top of the FDP the day before, When she opened her struggle against the SVP volcanic request that she described as a « termination initiative ». « Our health system would collapse, » said Jans. It is about the prosperity and security of the country.
In the fight against the SVP initiative, the old EU alliance from FDP to the far left has already been welded together. With the bilateral III, the step is likely to follow in the foreseeable future.
