Labor National Council overrides minimum wages approved by the people
Employees in the five cantons with minimum wages approved by the people may have to expect wage losses. On Tuesday, the National Council voted 109 to 76 in favor of subjecting cantonal wages to generally binding collective labor agreements.
17.06.2025, 10:41
SDA
The Federal Council had amended the Federal Act on the Declaration of General Applicability of Collective Employment Agreements (CEA) against its will following a motion by Councillor of States Erich Ettlin (center/OW). Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin made an urgent plea not to accept the bill.
During the debate, the conservative side of the Council praised the social partnership between employers' associations and trade unions. The cantonal minimum wages would create a patchwork quilt and the CLAs would be undermined by higher minimum wages at cantonal level.
Pressure on social partners
Thomas Burgherr (SVP/AG), speaking for the majority of the committee, said that cantonal minimum wages would put one-sided pressure on the social partnership. Switzerland was a unified economic area, which should also apply to wage regulations.
The social partners could certainly go beyond the amounts set at cantonal level for CEC wages and have this declared generally binding by the Federal Council on request. In this way, they would apply nationwide. Marcel Dobler (FDP/SG) explained that minimum wages were job destroyers and hindered career entry.
The left-green party referred to the sovereignty of the people, the constitution, federalism and a federal court ruling. The bill was an attack on direct democracy. According to the constitution, combating poverty is a task for the cantons, as the Federal Supreme Court had confirmed in the case of Neuchâtel's minimum wages.
Treaties versus referendum
All cantons - with the exception of Obwalden - and every trade union - after all, half of the social partnership - had spoken out against the bill in the consultation process. Ultimately, CLAs are contracts under private law and cannot take precedence over referendums in terms of legal hierarchy.
SP co-president Cédric Wermuth described the law as a "parliamentary coup against wage earners". It shows that a popular decision is only valid if it suits the bourgeois majority. The bill goes to the Council of States.
So far, voters in the five cantons of Basel-Stadt, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura and Ticino have approved cantonal minimum wages. Only in Geneva and Neuchâtel are they not based on the CLA. The city populations of Zurich and Winterthur voted in favor of local minimum wages by majorities of over two thirds. These were overturned by the administrative court.
