Bern island doctor successfully sues for discrimination
Published: Wednesday, Jan 31st 2024, 12:50
Updated At: Wednesday, Jan 31st 2024, 12:50
العودة إلى البث المباشر
A former doctor at Bern's Inselspital has been discriminated against on the basis of gender in connection with her career. This is the conclusion reached by the Bern-Mittelland Regional Court in a decision following a lengthy legal dispute.
A court had previously ruled that the doctor at Inselspital was affected by a retaliatory dismissal. In the current ruling, the court came to the conclusion that the doctor was discriminated against in terms of salary and promotion on the basis of her gender.
The doctor's lawyer, Rolf P. Steinegger, spoke to the media in Bern on Wednesday of a "landmark ruling". It is not enough for companies to simply claim that they promote women, they also need to act accordingly.
The doctor had broken new legal ground in Switzerland with her action for promotion discrimination, said lawyer and equality expert Zita Küng, praising the ruling.
Switzerland has had an equality law since 1996, but it is difficult to explain in a comprehensible and credible way why you have been discriminated against. This is because in the vast majority of companies, pay and promotion issues are taboo.
The ruling is a rejection of a corporate culture of secrecy when it comes to salary and promotion issues. Such decisions on pay and promotion should not simply be made "freehand" at will. "This must now be made comprehensible and non-discriminatory," emphasized Küng. "We need more transparency and clarity about what is going on in the companies."
Politicians must also consider whether further clarifications are needed in the Gender Equality Act in order to prevent lengthy legal proceedings in the future, as in the case of the doctor.
A long road
Yvonne Schärli, the former President of the Federal Commission for Women's Issues, was also pleased with the ruling. This will have an impact.
She emphasized that it was important that a woman had chosen this extremely difficult and exhausting legal path. Many other women could not do this.
The doctor herself spoke of a tiring, long journey that she had now been on for ten years. But she is glad she did. Her wish for other women is that it will no longer be necessary to litigate in the future. And she hopes that politicians will react and that women will be better represented in management positions in a few years' time.
Sawed off
The doctor was at the start of a promising career over ten years ago. She worked at the Inselspital in Bern as a senior physician. Compared to her male colleagues, she was not promoted and made slower progress.
After the birth of her child, the young doctor wanted to reduce her workload, but the Inselspital did not want her to do so. After a lengthy back and forth, the doctor was dismissed. She has already successfully defended herself against this by taking legal action.
The woman has now also been proven right on a second point. The female doctor had been discriminated against on the basis of gender with financial consequences in the distributions from a private medical pool. The same also applied to the advancement of her career, the Bern-Mittelland Regional Court stated in a ruling on 26 January 2024.
The decision of the regional court is not yet legally binding. It can still be appealed. A court will also decide how much money the doctor will receive from the Inselspital. It remains to be seen whether the Inselspital will appeal the latest ruling.
In the meantime, the doctor has built up a new career in a neighboring canton.
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