Political business Zurich municipal council puts its pay rise to the people

The Zurich municipal council is sticking to a pay rise for itself: it approved the revised compensation ordinance on Wednesday evening without discussion at the second reading. However, the people have the final say.

In the final vote, the municipal council backed the compensation ordinance by 80 votes to 33. The SP, Greens, GLP, Center/EVP and AL were in favour. The SVP and FDP were against.

The SVP had already spoken of an excessive bill in the first reading at the end of August: The municipal council wanted to shamelessly enrich itself with an exorbitant pay rise. It announced its intention to launch a referendum and ask the electorate to vote.

The parliamentary groups in favor have no objections to a referendum either: The SP, Greens, GLP, Center/EPP and AL are jointly launching a parliamentary referendum, they announced. "It is clear to us that the municipal council should not make the final decision on higher compensation for itself."

Compensation by the minute

The new compensation ordinance stipulates that the 125 municipal councillors will now each receive a basic lump sum of CHF 1,000 per month instead of the previous monthly expense allowance of CHF 260.

In addition, they are to be compensated CHF 1.20 for every minute of council meeting they attend. In addition, there will be further contributions for committee meetings and to the parliamentary groups.

The majority justifies the adjustments by saying that the workload and burden of the office has increased over the last 25 years, but the salary has not. The number of early resignations could also be reduced with an appropriate remuneration.