Sign the referendum against the 2nd pillar reform!
Pay more to get less - that's the recipe imposed by the bourgeois majority in parliament. In view of the harmful consequences, particularly for low-wage earners and part-timers, a referendum has been launched.
Following the revision of the AHV, which was passed on September 25, 2022, the second pillar was the new focus of the pension plan. Following intense negotiations, a judicious compromise solution had been found between employers and trade unions (Swiss Employers' Union on the one hand, Swiss Trade Unions and Travail.Suisse on the other): the conversion rate defining the amount of pensions would certainly have been lowered, but with a guarantee of maintaining the level of pensions in the compulsory part of the BVG and an improvement in pension coverage for people on low incomes or working part-time. A solidarity contribution (0.25% for employees, 0.25% for employers) was introduced: deducted from incomes of up to CHF 850,000, it was intended both to improve the pensions of low-income earners and to prevent those of the middle class from falling. Thus, with a modest deduction (for the above-mentioned maximum income, it would have cost the employer CHF 2125 and the employee the same amount), the highest salaries would have financed this social measure. The Federal Council agreed with this proposal, which was acceptable to the social partners. Unfortunately, subtracting a minimal share from the highest incomes seems to have given the bourgeois parties (Centre, Vert'libéraux, PLR and UDC) hives, and they preferred to torpedo this compromise during the debates in the Federal Chambers.
A shameful dismantling
Rather than accepting this gesture of solidarity in favor of the less well-off, these parties have instead gone out of their way to make life even more difficult for them. Thus, the conversion rate will be lowered from 6.8% to 6%, which represents a reduction of over 11% in the amount of pensions, without any compensatory measures, while the compulsory entry threshold to the BVG will be lowered from CHF 22,050 to CHF 19,845. On the face of it, it may seem gratifying that people with lower salaries are contributing to and improving their pensions, but those who wish to do so are already free to do so on their own (the USDAM offers solutions tailored to individual situations, for intermittent workers for example), while others, below or on the verge of the poverty line, refrain from doing so because they cannot afford it. This desire to force the latter to save for the second pillar is questionable. At retirement, when pensions and income are insufficient to cover basic needs, assistance is provided through supplementary benefits. With a lower conversion rate, a BVG pension that is too modest for low-income earners could bring no benefits, except to enable the cantonal funds responsible for supplementary benefits to make savings on the backs of low-wage earners.
For the benefit of the financial sector
With this reform, not only will there be no improvement in the situation of low-wage earners, but the middle class will also suffer both a reduction in pensions, putting a strain on their purchasing power in retirement, and an increase in contributions, as the bourgeois majority in parliament has also decided to drastically reduce the coordination deduction. Employers deduct AHV and pension fund contributions from their salaries. In order to avoid paying double contributions on the part of the salary already insured by the first pillar, there is a "coordination deduction" corresponding to ⅞ of the maximum AHV pension. In 1er As of January 2023, this corresponded to CHF 25,725 per year, the amount deducted from gross annual salary to calculate second-pillar contributions. The right-wing has imposed a change to this calculation: the coordination deduction would increase to 20% of the salary subject to AHV, which would lead to over 2 billion additional contributions, with a particularly brutal increase for low-income earners. However, the total assets of BVG pension funds currently exceed CHF 1,000 billion, a colossal sum which continues to grow (almost doubling in twenty years), while benefits are falling at the same time. This is an enormous source of profit for the finance and insurance sector (which can take up to 10% of the surplus products generated by insurers under the BVG*, not counting the annual management fees of 7 billion francs). According to USS President Pierre-Yves Maillard, "the right is seeking to undermine the benefits of the 2e pillar for people to acquire a 3e pillar, even more lucrative [for finance]."
Last year, in the run-up to the AHV vote, the right-wing majority had promised to improve the situation of women and pensioners when revising the BVG. In view of the unconvincing result, trade unions (including the USS, to which USDAM is affiliated) and left-wing parties have decided to launch a referendum, while sectoral employers' associations are also opposed to this reform.
Information and opportunity to sign the referendum on : https://baisse-des-rentes.ch
* See the study Lost billions - Life insurers' profits in the 2nd pillar by Matthias Kuert Killer, Travail.Suisse, 2014, 2e 2016 edition
