le News

An inquiry presented this week by RTS reveals evidence of likely vote buying related to the choice of Qatar for the 2022 Football World Cup due to start on 20 November 2022. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.comA cloud of corruption has hung over FIFA since 2010 when Qatar was chosen by 14 votes to 8 as the place for the 2022 World Cup. The US was the front runner, however, tiny Qatar, a nation with little in the way of football culture and infrastructure, was chosen. Suspicion has abounded ever...

On 10 November 2022, Switzerland and the UK, two nations outside the EU, signed an agreement deepening the relationship between the two nations’ research and innovation communities. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.comThe agreement was signed by UK Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, George Freeman MP, alongside Federal Councillor Parmelin, Head of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, at a ceremony in London. According to the UK...

While checking statements from health insurers a number of people have noticed Covid tests that were never administered. One individual in St. Gallen discovered 30 Covid tests billed by a doctor in Vaud on their statement, reported RTS. © Yauhen Akulich | Dreamstime.comA spokesperson for Santésuisse, a health insurance association, said the organisation estimates that 1% of Covid tests have not been billed correctly and could be fraudulent. The total value of these potentially fraudulent...

Switzerland’s consumer price index (CPI) remained stable in October 2022 compared with the previous month, reported Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO) this week. Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.comThis left year-on-year inflation at the end of October 2022 at 3%, the same level that it was at the end of September 2022. The stability of the index compared with the previous month is due to opposing trends that counterbalanced each other overall. Prices for gas, heating...

Recent data from Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO) show recent collective pay rises fall short of inflation. © Gfadel | Dreamstime.comSwitzerland’s key labour agreements between employers and unions included a nominal pay rise of 0.8% for 2022 and a 0.6% nominal rise in minimum wages, wrote the FSO on 31 October 2022. However, set against inflation of 3% over the year to 31 October 2022, pay is 2.2% lower in real terms. Sectors getting the biggest pay rises include...

For the seventh consecutive year, the price of tickets on Swiss public transport will remain unchanged. It will also become easier to buy tickets for bicycles and canine companions, reported RTS. © Hai Huy Ton That | Dreamstime.comNews of no price increases is likely to be welcomed given the relatively high price of Swiss public transport. A survey several years ago put the cost of travelling 100km on public transport in Switzerland at CHF 52, far above France (CHF 19.28), Austria (CHF...

Across most of Switzerland there is no minimum wage. However, the cantons of Neuchâtel (CHF 20 per hour), Geneva (CHF 23 per hour), Jura, Ticino and Basel-City have them. This week, a federal parliamentary commission voted in favour of challenging the applicability of these minimum wages, reported RTS. Photo by Life Of Pix on Pexels.comIf a national negotiation between employers and unions reaches a national deal on wages that is lower than the cantonal minimum it creates a disconnect....

At the end of 2021, Swiss employment-based pensions fund in aggregate held assets worth 18.5% more than what they owed. By 30 September 2022, they owed 0.5% more than they held in assets, according to government data published recently. Switzerland has a three layered pension system. The first layer is a state pension, known as AVS/AHV, which is funded by social security taxes on earnings. The second, known as the second pillar, is a private pension pot funded by compulsory salary...

Recently, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of Max Beeler, a man who challenged Switzerland on gender based discrimination related to widowers pension payments. Under current rules widows receive pension payments related to their children for their entire life. Widowers on the other hand receive them only until their children reach the age of 18. Mr. Beeler lost his wife in an accident in 1994 and stopped receiving pension payments when his youngest child reached 18....

The Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP) argued this week that the CHF 6 billion spent on state employees should be cut, reported 20 Minutes. © Guenter Purin | Dreamstime.comSince 2007, the amount spent on state employees has risen by around a third from CHF 4.5 billion to more than CHF 6 billion. In 2021, there were close to 40,000 people working for the Swiss state, a number the UDC/SVP would like to see cut by 9%. It would also like to see pay cuts to bring the total cost down to CHF 5...