The initiative had been submitted by representatives of the SP, GP, alternative list and EVP. And it had a specific occasion – namely the last wages of the cantonal hospitals. There the wage adjustments remained regularly under inflation; Meanwhile, the rest of the cantonal staff received better adjustments.
An example: For 2025, the USZ granted only 0.5 percent inflation compensation; The government council, on the other hand, approved an increase of 1.1 percent for the cantonal bodies.
USZ, KSW, IPW and PUK Zurich belong to the canton, but are not part of the administration. «In all four hospitals, no full of inflation was granted for the third time in a row. This is a scandal, »said SP cantonal councilor Renata Grünenfelder, who works even in the Usz emergency.
On the other hand, the doctor Josef Widler (center), who is also on the board of a private nursing association, reported. His contradiction: In the cantonal houses such as USZ and KSW, wages would already be aligned “where we cannot keep up in private nursing institutions.”
It turned differently than expected
The vote resulted in a very close result: the applications were temporarily supported – that is: 64 out of a total of 180 votes spoke out in favor of the idea that the idea was continued. This was just above the hurdle of 60 votes, which are necessary for such “preliminary support”. A commission must now develop a report and proposals.
In fact, the situation of the Zurich hospitals is special: a few years ago, the cantonal health companies received more personnel law autonomy. This was justified by the fact that these houses must remain competitive in the general shortage of skilled workers in the healthcare system; So you should be able to act regardless of the cantonal wage corset and also offer higher salaries: “It must be possible for the Hospital Council to be able to position the USZ on the labor market as an attractive employer,” said the government council in 2022 about these plans.
In reality it has been the other way around since then: while the administrative employees received higher sentences, wages stagnated with the health companies mentioned.
