Swiss left submits referendum against cantonal wage override

A committee of unions and political parties has submitted more than 100,000 signatures to challenge a law allowing collectively negotiated minimum wages to override cantonal rates, SRF reported. The Federal Chancellery will decide whether the referendum is valid after checking the signatures, a step expected to be straightforward given the number submitted.

Voters could decide the issue as soon as late February or early June 2027. The law was approved by Parliament over the summer: the National Council voted 115 to 78, with six abstentions, and the Council of States voted 23 to 16, with five abstentions.

Under current rules, collective labour agreements can be declared generally binding only if they do not conflict with federal or cantonal law. The new legislation would let minimum wages negotiated by unions and employers in such agreements take precedence over cantonal minimum wages.

Unions, the Social Democratic Party and the Greens gathered signatures over the past three months. Opponents call the change an attack on low-paid workers, arguing that tens of thousands of people could lose out in cantons and municipalities where minimum wages have been approved but not yet introduced. They say workers in hospitality, cleaning, hairdressing, temporary staffing, bakeries and butcher shops would be among those affected.

Unia president Vania Alleva said women would be disproportionately affected, as they make up two-thirds of those who benefit from minimum wages. She described minimum wages as a way to prevent poverty and argued that they stop taxpayers from indirectly subsidising employers who pay too little through social assistance.

Social Democratic lawmaker Jacqueline Badran said the law would override decisions made in cantonal and municipal votes, calling it “a coup against direct democracy.” The federal government had opposed the proposal during parliamentary debate, with Economics Minister Guy Parmelin saying it conflicted with the cantons’ constitutional authority to set minimum wages. The government will now represent Parliament’s majority position in the referendum campaign.

Minimum wages currently exist in Geneva, Neuchâtel, Basel-Stadt, Jura and Ticino. The latter three cantons would not be affected by the law because they already have an exemption for generally binding collective agreements. However, the referendum committee says those minimum wages would no longer be adjusted for inflation. Supporters of the law say collectively negotiated agreements should take precedence and argue that the change would protect agreements covering more than wages.