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Long-term jobless thrown lifeline

This content was published on Oct 24, 2005 The pioneering Foundation for Work project in canton St Gallen, will be copied in Zurich city next year, but trade unions fear such schemes could lead to wage dumping. Foundation for Work has been judged a success story since its inception in 1997, getting people who have been jobless for years back into work and…

Swiss to be repatriated from Caribbean coast

This content was published on Oct 24, 2005 More than 300 Swiss have taken shelter on the Yucatán peninsula and were safe, said tour operators. The Swiss tourists would have been staying in the hotel shelters. An aeroplane for tour operators Tui, Kuoni and Hotelplan is due to arrive by Wednesday. However, it was reported on Sunday that the airport at Cancún was…

Mailing a piece of the Matterhorn

This content was published on Oct 23, 2005 Part of what appears to be a successful business strategy is the hiring of disabled people. The postcards have already expanded beyond Switzerland’s most famous peak. They include other Alpine icons such as the Jungfrau and Eiger mountains. Selling pieces of the Swiss Alps is nothing new to Jean-Bernard Quarroz and Pierre-André Zufferey from the…

Merz defends Swiss tax system

This content was published on Oct 22, 2005 Speaking at a Swiss Business Federation forum in Zurich, Merz rejected the idea of rigid tax harmonisation with the European Union. His comments follow suggestions from Brussels that the corporate tax regimes in cantons Zug and Schwyz, that encourage large foreign companies to set up holdings, do not comply with the 1972 Free Trade Act.…

Parties discuss cure for ailing health system

This content was published on Oct 22, 2005 Both the Christian Democrats and the Radicals have come out in favour of higher excess payments for patients and limiting the free choice of doctors. Delegates of the Radical Party on Saturday adopted a proposal for a national health council to examine the Swiss health system. They came out in favour of allowing health insurance…

Swiss condemn trade talk deadlock

This content was published on Oct 22, 2005 Luzius Wasescha said the G10 group of countries, of which Switzerland is a member, was ready to walk away from the negotiating table if the situation failed to improve. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Wasescha said the intransigence of exporting countries was “a joke” and threatened to scupper any hope of an agreement…

Farmers find they are not worlds apart

This content was published on Oct 22, 2005 At the end of the visit they joined forces to call for a fairer deal for agriculture in global trade talks. The ten-day trip by six farmers was organised by the charity, Swissaid, and the Swiss Farmers’ Association. At a conference earlier this month in the Swiss capital, Bern, entitled “We Feed the World” the…

New men called up for washing duty

This content was published on Oct 21, 2005 In around 80 per cent of households it is women who take care of the laundry, says Bauknecht Switzerland, which hopes to redress the balance by teaching men how to wash. The company, a subsidiary of the Whirlpool Corporation, is organising courses to show men how they can transform a mountain of dirty washing into…

Broadband pricing comes under scrutiny

This content was published on Oct 21, 2005 The former state monopoly, which still controls the so-called “last mile”, is suspected of favouring its Bluewin internet subsidiary over its competitors. The Federal Competition Commission wants to know if Swisscom has been overcharging these internet service providers who want to provide ADSL – or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line – to people’s homes and businesses.…

Pricking the social conscience of Swiss firms

This content was published on Oct 21, 2005 The Geneva-based Philias foundation encourages companies to develop and raise awareness of their social role. Ferdman Guerrier has been concerned with social responsibility for a long time. At the age of 18 she co-founded an Aids prevention association. She later went on to work for the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unesco, before founding Philias…

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