Confederation assesses personnel leasing for vaccine production positively
Published: Wednesday, Nov 8th 2023, 11:40
Updated At: Thursday, Nov 9th 2023, 00:54
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The federal government considers the hiring of 29 federal employees by Lonza for the production of Covid vaccines to be positive. According to the Federal Council, the federal employees have made a valuable contribution to improving the safety of vaccine production.
According to a report approved by the Federal Council on Wednesday in response to a postulate from the National Council's Control Committee, no problems distorting competition or personnel law have arisen.
In spring 2021, Lonza had problems recruiting sufficient staff for vaccine production at its production site in Visp VS. In order to avoid possible delays in the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines, the federal government provided 29 specialists for a limited period until the end of 2021.
They included employees of the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology, Agroscope and the two federal institutes of technology.
"Not critical to success"
The report describes the contribution of the loaned employees to vaccine production as valuable but "not critical to success". There are certain indications that the loaned employees may have slightly accelerated vaccine production. However, according to the report, Lonza would probably have been able to secure the required personnel without federal employees.
Because only the company Lonza was involved in the production of a basic material for a Covid-19 vaccine in Switzerland at the time and was experiencing a shortage of staff, the program did not have a distorting effect on competition, the report continued.
As the federal employees had volunteered for the assignment, the report found that the loan was unproblematic from a personnel law perspective. The report states that a legal basis in the Federal Personnel Act (FPA) would be required if a loan were to be ordered in future, even against the will of the employees concerned.
However, the Federal Council does not consider it necessary to amend the BPG, as the voluntary approach should be maintained in the future.
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