After the initiative against “golden parachutes”, the SVP has now taken a referendum against a proposal from the city council. An overview of the voting transactions from November 24th.
The severance payments are intended to guarantee a soft landing after being voted out.
The most important thing in brief
- In the city of Zurich, new regulations are to be regulated as to which elected members of the authorities should receive severance payments and how high these should be.
- Voters decided in March that only city councilors should receive severance pay. Parliament then decided that other elected members of the authorities, such as school presidents and justices of the peace, should also be entitled to severance benefits. According to the rules of the city’s personnel law. A committee close to the SVP has called for a referendum.
What is it about?
High severance payments for members of the authorities have repeatedly caused discontent in Zurich in recent years. Two cases in particular made headlines: They affected the former SP city councilor Claudia Nielsen and the former district school president Roberto Rodriguez, also an SP member.
In 2021, Rodriguez was elected headmaster of his own Uto school district and received a severance payment of 651,000 francs for leaving the executive board. The fuss surrounding the case was so great that Rodriguez ultimately did not take up the new position, and he did not waive his severance pay.
His party colleague Nilsen had received 856,000 francs three years earlier, after the then 56-year-old city councilor did not run for re-election of her own accord.
In 2022, the relevant regulation was revised and the amount of possible severance payments was limited to a maximum of 1.8 annual salaries. Nevertheless, political pressure remained high. The SVP in particular campaigned against the “golden parachutes”. On November 24th, the city of Zurich will vote on severance pay after the SVP held a referendum against a parliamentary decision.
Didn’t we just have this issue with severance pay?
Yes, at the beginning of March. At that time, the SVP achieved a rare voting success in red-green Zurich with its initiative against “golden parachutes”. It was approved with 55.8 percent, and even left-wing strongholds such as districts 4 and 5 voted for it. In the final question, however, the city council’s counterproposal prevailed. Like the initiative, this one also stipulated that only city councilors would be entitled to severance pay. However, the counterproposal provided for a higher amount and, in some cases, different conditions for eligibility.
However, there was an explosive passage in the voting documents for the counterproposal at the time: Compensation for other members of the authority should be regulated by the local council in the future, if it considers this necessary, it said. And that’s exactly what sparked the conflict.
Shortly after the vote, the local council decided that other elected members of the authorities – city mayors, justices of the peace, school presidents – should be subject to city personnel law. And this also has rules for severance payments or continued wage payments after a dismissal.
The SVP finds this scandalous and has launched a committee to hold a referendum against the decision. The committee quickly collected the necessary signatures. That’s why the city will now vote again on severance pay.
What rules has Parliament decided?
Although only city councilors are now subject to the regulation on severance benefits, other elected members of the authorities can also receive such compensation. This is analogous to the other administrative employees.
Administrative employees are also entitled to severance pay if they have worked for the city for at least five years, are at least 35 years old and the employment relationship was terminated through no fault of their own. The following rules now apply to elected members of the authorities: They will only receive compensation if they are involuntarily no longer nominated for another term of office or are no longer elected. In addition, any new income earned will be counted towards the severance pay.
The amount of compensation depends on age and years of service. It is calculated the same as for other administrative staff.
The Arguments of the Referendum Committees
From the SVP’s point of view, the city council’s proposal should be rejected. She speaks of a blatant disregard for the will of the people and an “anti-democratic approach” by the local council. Because just five weeks after the referendum, the city parliament passed the deal, which wanted to continue to provide members of the authorities with severance pay. The SVP opposed this in parliament, but was defeated due to the majority. “We are convinced that the population of the city of Zurich will not appreciate such disregard for a democratic referendum,” the committee writes in its statement in the voting documents.
The arguments of the proponents
The city council and the majority of parliament see it differently, with the other bourgeois parties also siding with the city council. The “Ordinance on severance benefits for members of the authorities” has been adapted to the will of the people. This only applies to the city council. However, there was no regulation for the other elected members of the authorities. In order to close the legal gap, the remaining members of the authority would have to be subject to city personnel law. This applies to all administrative employees.
