The hospitality industry fears huge extra costs

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Parliament is in the final sprint for the reform of the pension fund. And it bumps again in the last meters. “What is currently on the table will be incredibly costly for our industry,” Boerenbond chairman and central national councilor Markus Ritter (55, SG) recently told Blick. “Discontent is high in various low-wage industries.”

On Thursday, the board of the farmers’ union wants to decide whether it supports the reform of occupational pensions (BVG) or recommends a no for the final vote.

The hospitality industry is booming

It is not only bustling with the farmers, but also in the catering industry. He fears the additional costs associated in particular with a reduction in the so-called coordination deduction. The lower the deduction, the higher the insured total wage on which employers and employees must pay premiums.

The Gastrosuisse association, under its chairman Casimir Platzer, is fighting back here: “The biggest problem lies with the coordination deduction”, says a letter to several parliamentarians that Blick has seen.

The National Council and the Council of States have agreed on a flexible deduction of 20 percent. A variant where the cost-benefit ratio is no longer correct. “The path you are now taking means an enormous additional burden of up to 150 million francs,” the letter reads. In total, the industry would have to transport an additional 250 million euros annually. “In my opinion you are going too far and the additional costs are unacceptable for many sectors of the economy,” the warning reads. Such extra costs are “hardly manageable” in the own committees.

That’s how it sounds in the ranks of Hotelleriesuisse. There’s no definitive stance there, but the base tenor is moving toward rejection, as an insider reports. “The reform will be very expensive – with little effect,” he concluded. It would probably be more beneficial to sink the template.

The catering associations will also express their criticism to the trade association, where skeptical sounds can also be heard.

Fine-tune the last details

Next week, however, the House of Representatives will work on the final details. Another point of contention is the level of the entry threshold, from which income entry into the pension fund becomes mandatory. The Council of States would like to lower this from the current CHF 22,050 to CHF 17,640. This would mean that about 140,000 people would be newly insured and 60,000 more people.

The Social Commission of the National Council now wants to set the limit at CHF 19,845 – meaning only 70,000 people are newly insured and 30,000 people are additionally insured. A suggestion that SVP faction leader Thomas Aeschi (44) suggested. “It is a compromise that allows us to insure more people, but the administrative burden can still be kept within limits,” says de Zuger. Whether he gets away with it will be decided on Monday in the National Council.

Please support template

Whichever variant ultimately prevails, the BVG reform should also pass the final vote next week. Because the majority of the FDP, GLP and Mitte would have to agree with the proposal. The SVP has already decided, as Aeschi confirms: “Our parliamentary group will support the proposal in the final vote – we decided that with no votes against and eight abstentions.”

In the event of a referendum – the SP and the trade unions have already announced the referendum – it will be difficult to present it. The letter from Gastrosuisse also assumes: a referendum campaign can only be won if all bourgeois parties and all business associations are behind a compromise that can achieve a majority, it says. And: “Once this alliance falls apart, even partially, I don’t think we stand a chance in a referendum.”

Source:Blick