Healthcare workers demonstrate in Bern
Keystone / Peter Schneider
As the Swiss parliament prepares to debate measures to promote stronger nursing care, healthcare workers delivered a petition with nearly 190,000 signatures to Bern.
+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
They are calling for the “immediate and full” implementation of a successful popular initiative in 2021 that called for improved conditions for healthcare staff.
+ Swiss voters give helping hand to nurses
Some 200 healthcare workers delivered a letter to politicians who had accepted the invitation from the Healthcare Workers Coalition. They were accompanied by a large banner, placards, and a giant heart, according to a joint statement. The House of Representatives will debate the new Federal Act on Working Conditions in Nursing on Tuesday and Wednesday.
This is the culmination of the “nursing initiative”, which was approved by 61% of voters in 2021. However, the coalition, comprising several unions and associations, considers this bill “insufficient” and regrets that it has been “weakened” by a parliamentary committee.
Unions and associations are calling for the implementation of the nursing initiative. They also demand a reduction in working hours, a minimum staffing ratio to ensure quality care, improved supplements for night, weekend, and holiday work, and a requirement for employers to comply with collective bargaining agreements and cantonal laws.
If this fails to happen, the coalition plans to organise strikes, as agreed during a national demonstration on November 22, 2025.
More
More
Nursing shortage causes alarm in Switzerland
Translated from French with AI/mga
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch.
