Don’t forget the employees!

class=”sc-3778e872-0 cKDKQr”>

Dear members of the National Council and the Council of States

Over the past three weeks, many of Credit Suisse’s approximately 17,000 and UBS’s 22,000 employees have looked to their future with uncertainty. In the public debate about the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, there is a lot of talk about numbers, money, regulations, ‘too big to fail’ or bonuses. But the affected employees of the two banks remain only a side note.

That has to change! New UBS boss Sergio Ermotti has announced that “difficult cuts” are coming. This means nothing but the loss of thousands of jobs in Switzerland in the coming years.

First, our liberal labor market will not be able to accommodate this large number of job seekers. And second, the next few weeks and months are for the Employees and their families full of uncertainty and extremely stressful without concrete information. You are confronted with existential questions.

The Bundesrat has rightly intervened and prevented worse things with huge sums of billions. But now it is time for the affected employees of the two banks to be protected and respected. It should not be the case that during the extraordinary session Parliament spends days debating money and technical aspects of the CS rescue and those affected are forgotten. They have been working with passion, dedication and expertise for years and have delivered good work. It is not their failure that necessitates this rescue.

It will take months before UBS plans for the new bank and the concrete measures to implement the merger are worked out. That is why we call on you to support our call for an end to layoffs in Parliament by the end of 2023. And to make the negotiations between the social partners and the two banks binding. Politicians should not avoid their responsibility here!

Natalia Ferrara, General Manager of the Swiss Bank Employee Association

Source:Blick