SGB insists on wage protection and public service in EU negotiations
Published: Thursday, Feb 1st 2024, 13:10
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The Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB) supports the planned negotiations with the EU. However, it insists on the safeguarding of Swiss wages and guarantees for the public service in electricity and rail transport.
On Thursday, the SGB published its statement on the draft negotiating mandate submitted by the Federal Council last December. In terms of wage protection, the exceptions negotiated with Brussels are not sufficient. There are clear deteriorations, it argues.
Expenses, service blocks and security deposits would have to be secured and excluded from dynamization and from the competence of the European Court of Justice. According to the declaration on the draft mandate, Switzerland would have to adopt the EU expenses regulation and the deposit would be effectively suspended.
Criticism of electricity market liberalization
According to the SGB, the ban on services, which is currently imposed around a thousand times a year to keep out "black sheep" among companies, is not explicitly safeguarded. The shortened pre-registration period also displeases the SGB.
For the electricity market and international rail transport, it opposes liberalization and calls for cooperation agreements instead of market access agreements. With regard to the electricity agreement, the SGB finds it "very problematic" that Switzerland would have to liberalize the electricity supply at all consumption levels.
The SGB is also critical of Switzerland's proposed choice model. On the positive side, however, Switzerland would be fully reintegrated into the EU high-voltage grid as part of the EU internal electricity market.
"Empty promises"
With regard to rail transport, the SGB writes that the current cooperation model works. It rejects the liberalization demanded by the EU. In addition, the exceptions for tariff integration and clocking priority are "very decisive".
In contrast to the Swiss negotiating guidelines, however, these exceptions cannot be found in the EU documents. Statements by the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) that everything is secured are therefore - as things stand today - empty promises, criticizes the SGB. It also fears that foreign providers could sell tickets at dumping prices on lucrative routes.
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