News

UNI Finance affiliate the Swiss Association for Bank Employees (ASEB) released a statement explaining how Swiss bank employees are paid. Public discontent arose in Switzerland afterUBS announced that it will pay around SFr2 billion in bonuses despite an estimated SFr8 billion fourth-quarter loss and a government bailout. The bonuses are part of performance-related payments for employees whose wage is divided into a fixed and a variable part.



The press release states that:

• Bank employees have not received a 13th salary for 10 years. This has been replaced by bonuses.
• Most employment contracts foresee a wage comprising a fixed and a variable part. The variable part is the bonus.
• In most cases, the bonus received by an employee represents at most one monthly wage, seldom two.


ASEB also invites social partners to negotiate a fair wage agreement for Swiss bank employees. This agreement should protect employees from unjustified attacks as well as from a deteriorating work climate. Finally, the press release states that the strong public response following UBS' announcement that it will pay bonuses to its employees is a strong signal for Swiss banks to change course, if they want to regain public confidence.

The bonus payments were approved by the Swiss financial regulator, Finma.



Both the chief executive, Marcel Rohner, and chairman, Peter Kurer, agreed to forgo their 2008 bonuses.



In addition, Ethos - a Swiss Foundation for Sustainable Development - announced last week that Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS have accepted to submit their remuneration system/report to an advisory shareholders vote at their annual general meeting. UBS committed to put its 2009 remuneration system to a shareholder vote, whereas Credit Suisse will hold a vote on its 2008 remuneration report. The vote will be advisory as current Swiss company law does not permit a binding vote. This follows a resolution named "Say on Pay" put forward by Ethos and 8 pension funds in September 2008.



ASEB's press release is available below in French, German and Italian:







More information on: http://www.sbpv.ch/