Federal Council rejects proposal for more flexibility for start-ups
Published: Wednesday, Nov 1st 2023, 12:10
Updated At: Thursday, Nov 2nd 2023, 00:54
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The Federal Council rejects a draft law for more working time flexibility for people working for and financially involved in startups. For it, this draft prepared by the National Council's Economic Committee (WAK-N) is immature and not suitable for a majority.
It would be worth examining whether a suitable exemption to the working and rest time regulations could not also be created for startups, as has been created for other types of businesses, and this at the ordinance level. This is what the state government writes in its statement published on Wednesday. Parliament should therefore not act on the draft law, it said.
In November 2022, the WAK-N had submitted the draft law for consultation. This goes back to a parliamentary initiative of the St. Gallen FDP National Councilor Marcel Dobler.
Specifically, the Commission proposes that employees who have a financial stake in the start-up company should be exempt from the Labor Code for up to five years after its establishment. This is in order to give such people more flexibility in terms of working hours when setting up start-up companies.
However, provisions that serve to protect health are to remain applicable to them as well. According to the Federal Council, the proposal was controversial in the consultation process. There were numerous minority motions for further parliamentary debate.
Already there is a change
At the beginning of July this year, the Federal Council enacted an amendment to the ordinance, according to which employees in certain companies will in future be deployed within a time span of 17 hours a day. This primarily affects information and communications technology companies with global projects.
Furthermore, it concerns service companies active in the fields of auditing, trusteeship or tax consultancy.
This flexibility is particularly important in project teams with participants from different countries, the Federal Council wrote in May. This change to the ordinance was the result of a parliamentary initiative by Konrad Graber, a former member of the Council of States from Lucerne.
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