Federal Court rejects complaint about dismissal of Tagi editor
Daniel Suter was also laid off during the mass layoffs of 52 employees at the *Tages-Anzeiger* in May 2009. The Tamedia publishing group cited economic reasons to justify the layoffs.
The Federal Court now maintains that the Tamedia publishing house acted correctly in dismissing the Tages-Anzeiger editor. This is because employee representatives of a company may also be dismissed for economic reasons. In 2010, the Zurich Labor Court concluded in response to Suter's complaint that his dismissal had been abusive and awarded the journalist compensation. The Zurich High Court then ruled in favor of Tamedia a year ago and overturned the decision. According to SDA, Daniel Suter had worked for the newspaper since 1987 and was elected president of the staff committee in 2005.
The Federal Supreme Court has now rejected Suter's complaint. According to SDA, the court first recalled that the dismissal of an employee representative is considered abusive if it is pronounced because of his activity in the personnel committee. If, on the other hand, the employer can prove a justified reason independent of this, the dismissal is permissible. According to existing case law, such justified cause could also consist of economic reasons. There is no reason to change this practice. Suter's view to the contrary would be tantamount to an absolute protection of continuance. However, this is not covered by the spirit and purpose of the law.
In addition, the employee representatives would thus be privileged in the event of mass layoffs at the expense of other employees. This would force the employer to make savings elsewhere. In this case, the measures could be less socially acceptable and affect a larger group of people.
Imprint and Syndicom on the Federal Court decision
The decision of the Federal Court shows that there is an urgent need for action in the protection of employee representatives, said the professional association Imprint and the media union Syndicom in a statement on Tuesday. With the tightening of its own case law, the Federal Court would completely nullify the protection of employee representatives against dismissal in the event of mass redundancies: this would hinder and make impossible the work of personnel commissions, which are supposed to perform their delicate duties without pressure.
There was an urgent need for action here in terms of legal policy. The ball is now definitely in Parliament's court. Switzerland has already been reprimanded several times by the ILO and called upon to improve the protection of employees and their company representatives. The corresponding legal basis, for which a draft amendment to the law has been drafted, must be improved quickly.
