Press CLA: Federal conciliation body will now be involved
The federal conciliation board is now being called in to resolve the dispute over a collective bargaining agreement for the German-speaking Swiss press. However, publishers remain skeptical.
In the conflict over a collective labor agreement (CLA) for the German-speaking Swiss press, the Federal Conciliation Board is now being called in. Although the Swiss Press Association agrees with this decision, it remains skeptical about the usefulness of this institution, which was set up by the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA) on June 15, 2006 at the request of the media unions Comedia and Impressum. Comedia and Impressum stated that their request for the establishment of the conciliation board for the settlement of collective labor disputes had thus been granted. In December 2005, the two unions approached the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) in order to get the negotiations with the Swiss Press Association for a new CLA (German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino) moving again. The unions were aiming for constructive talks and hoped for the same attitude on the part of the publishers, the statement continued.
The publishers had previously spoken out against the establishment of the arbitration board. They doubted that the CLA conflict was a case for the "Act on the Federal Arbitration Board for the Settlement of Collective Labor Disputes". However, the decision to set up the arbitration board did not come as a surprise to the publishers, explained Hanspeter Kellermüller, legal advisor to the Swiss Press Association. According to Kellermüller, the association still wants to maintain its position that the wages of media professionals should not be determined in a collective labor agreement, but in the companies themselves.
The media unions, on the other hand, are striving for a CLA with minimum wages. The positions are irreconcilable, said Kellermüller. The conciliation procedure will not change this. The conciliation board will merely mediate. It could only act as an arbitration board if both sides agreed on the wage regulation. The first step now is to set a date for negotiations, according to Seco, which runs the secretariat of the conciliation board.
The publishers had previously spoken out against the establishment of the arbitration board. They doubted that the CLA conflict was a case for the "Act on the Federal Arbitration Board for the Settlement of Collective Labor Disputes". However, the decision to set up the arbitration board did not come as a surprise to the publishers, explained Hanspeter Kellermüller, legal advisor to the Swiss Press Association. According to Kellermüller, the association still wants to maintain its position that the wages of media professionals should not be determined in a collective labor agreement, but in the companies themselves.
The media unions, on the other hand, are striving for a CLA with minimum wages. The positions are irreconcilable, said Kellermüller. The conciliation procedure will not change this. The conciliation board will merely mediate. It could only act as an arbitration board if both sides agreed on the wage regulation. The first step now is to set a date for negotiations, according to Seco, which runs the secretariat of the conciliation board.
