Conciliation body set up to resolve SDA labor dispute
In order to reach a conciliation in the labor dispute between the news agency SDA and its staff, the Arbitration Board for Collective Labor Disputes was established on Monday. A peace obligation now applies for the next 45 days.
The Federal Department of Economic Affairs (EAER) has appointed Marc Häusler, governor of the Bernese region of Oberaargau BE, as chairman of the three-member conciliation committee. Alexander Frei of the Basel Employers' Association is the employers' assessor, and Irene Darwich of the Syna trade union is the employees' assessor.
The conciliation body mediates between the Swiss Dispatch Agency as well as the editorial commission of SDA, the trade union Syndicom and the professional association Impressum.
The proceedings before the conciliation board are not public and the members are subject to the duty of confidentiality, according to the media release of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), which is responsible for the administration of the conciliation board.
Negotiation until mid-July
As a first step, Marc Häusler now wants to meet with the two assessors of the conciliation body by the end of April to determine the further procedure. The legal basis for the procedure dates back to the 1940s and is not very precise in all points, Häusler told SDA.
Among other things, the panel would have to decide whether the conflicting parties should first be heard individually or jointly. This also depends on the parties themselves, he said. "The more escalated the situation, the more likely it is that the parties will be heard separately." He himself is currently leaning toward a separate hearing.
The hearings are scheduled to begin in May. Negotiations will then take place. During the negotiations, the representatives of all parties to the conflict will sit at the same table and an agreement will be reached.
If things go optimally, a hearing could be held by mid-July, Häusler said. If the conciliation body does not succeed in reaching an agreement between the parties, it will draw up a mediation proposal.
Combat measures prohibited
During the conciliation process, the peace obligation applies, which is initially set at 45 days. However, this can be extended. As long as it applies, the parties must refrain from industrial action.
"I very much hope that we will find a solution," Häusler said. As government governor, he said, his experience is that there is always a solution in mediation if both parties are seriously interested.
The conciliation body had been called in by the Swiss Dispatch Agency. However, the chairman of the conciliation body is bound by party neutrality - and the body as a whole also has a neutral role.
Four days strike
SDA management had announced in January that it intended to cut 35.6 of 150 full-time positions. After a brief warning strike failed to produce any progress from the employees' point of view, the editorial staff went on an indefinite strike on January 30, which was suspended on February 2 in favor of negotiations with the Board of Directors.
The Board of Directors delegation declared the negotiations a failure after four rounds and called on the EES conciliation body. The workforce welcomed conciliation. The main points of discussion are the scope of the reduction and the content of the social plan. (SDA)
