Vote City of Zurich SVP puts severance pay to the ballot box again

Severance pay for members of public authorities will once again be put to the vote in the city of Zurich: a referendum by the SVP has been successful, as the city announced on Wednesday.

According to the announcement, the referendum committee "No anti-democratic severance pay for members of the authorities" submitted more than the required 2,000 valid signatures.

The committee, which includes national, cantonal and municipal councillors from the SVP, refers to the adoption in March of the counter-proposal to the "No golden parachutes" initiative, which only approved severance payments for city councillors.

The fact that a majority of the Zurich city parliament amended an ordinance shortly afterwards and stipulated severance payments for justices of the peace, district school presidents and members of other authorities is a scandal and a rip-off, the SVP states. "This is a disregard for the referendum," says the party.

However, this step had been announced in the referendum newspaper. "Compensation for other members of the authorities should in future be regulated by the municipal council in the ordinance on the employment relationship of municipal staff, insofar as the municipal council deems this necessary," it said.