Parliament dashes hopes of Swiss whistleblowers

Swiss whistleblowers have again been denied extra protection. KEYSTONE

Proposed laws to grant extra protection for Swiss whistleblowers has again been voted down by parliament.

To understand the debate today, we need to look back: Four years ago, the House of Representatives scuttled the project for better protection for employees who wanted to report irregularities and grievances in their companies. Although the business associations were in favour, several political parties wedre against it. The point of contention was protection against dismissal for whistleblowers – the left did not go far enough, the right did not want to strengthen it.

The no ended seven years of work, which is why Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter – then Justice Minister – stated: “It will not be possible for the Federal Council to immediately submit a new proposal or submit a new motion. If one side or the other doesn’t move, we’ll end up back at the same point.”

The Federal Council still takes this stance today. For this reason, after heated discussions, the responsible commission recommended that the National Council do nothing. “The majority of the commission was of the opinion that nothing had changed,” explains Aargau Center National Councilor Maya Bally to SRF. “That’s why it makes no sense to process the same claim again.”

As a centrist politician, she regrets this. Because better protection for employees who want to report grievances in everyday work is necessary. Switzerland has also committed to this – it corresponds to the requirements of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In fact, the OECD has called on Switzerland several times to close this gap in the fight against corruption. That’s what Basel Green National Councilor Sibel Arslan also wants: “The pressure is there. The OECD partner countries have said that we should do something by the end of the year.”

Ultimately, it was the members of Switzerland’s parliamentary delegation to the OECD who submitted this proposal, Arslan continued. Last year, they convinced the Council of States to legally protect whistleblowing in the private sector and to increase the penalties for companies.

That would be important, says Martin Hilti, Managing Director of Transparency International. “It is often only possible to uncover corruption and other misconduct thanks to whistleblowers. This is not only in the interest of the people concerned and the public, but especially of the company.”

For this reason, various companies have voluntarily improved protection. According to Hilti, around 60% of companies have set up a reporting point. This shows that there is a need for action on the part of politicians.

But, as was the case four years ago, the National Council clearly said no to a new attempt to provide better legal protection for whistleblowing. Accordingly, the OECD will increase the pressure on Switzerland.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here. 

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].