This coming November, the Swiss people will be called on to vote in a referendum aimed at enshrining fair remuneration in the Constitution.
The initiative proposed by the Young Socialists and supported by the Swiss Socialist Party, the Green Party, the national trade union centre and the IUF's Swiss affiliate, UNIA, reads as follows: "The highest salary paid by a company shall not be greater than twelve times the lowest salary paid by the same company."
In other words, no worker in a given company should earn less in a year than its highest-paid manager earns in a month! The initiative defines "salary" as including all forms of compensation linked to employment.
Over the past decade, profiteering bosses have been awarding themselves obscene salaries and bonuses while workers' wages have stagnated and dropped. The 1:12 Initiative calls for a fairer distribution of the compensation budget and an end to discretionary increases for the highest paid.
A return to sanity through a return to democratic and binding principles for all!
IUF staff showing support for the initiative in their 1:12 t-shirts