- The committee unanimously requested that the whistleblowing bill 13.094 be referred back to the Federal Council with the instruction to formulate the bill in a more comprehensible and simpler way.
- The basic structure of the proposal (cascade employer-authority-public and incentives for internal reporting offices) should be expressly retained.
The Commission unanimously proposes that the Council approve the decision of the National Council of May 5, 2015, to refer the whistleblowing bill 13.094 back to the Federal Council with the Order to formulate the draft more understandable and simple. However, the basic structure of the bill is to be retained, namely with regard to the cascade (employer, authority, public) as well as the incentive for the creation of internal hotlines.
Bishop Pirmin (CE, SO), for the CommissionYou are right to be familiar with this business. We discussed it in committee at our meeting on July 4, 2014, and the Council of States approved it on September 22, 2014, by 22 votes to 13 with 6 abstentions. Our sister commission and then the National Council stepped in, but sent the bill back to the Federal Council with the mandate to Design more understandable and simple to formulate. At the Basic structure of the template, however, is to be retained. This should be emphasized twice. This applies in particular to the cascade of employees, authorities, the public and the incentive for the creation of internal reporting offices in companies. The National Council decided this by 134 votes to 49 with 1 abstention.
We now have to decide today whether we in our Council want to adopt the approval of this rejection. The Commission has decided to do so, albeit without great enthusiasm. The purely formal and not substantive revision is admittedly a nice wish. It is always the legislator’s wish that the legislation be simple. Nevertheless, the debate in the National Council then turned partly to content.
But without much desire and in consideration of the very clear vote of the National Council decision, your commission unanimously proposes to you to follow the National Council and to refer the business back to the Federal Council.Sommaruga Simonetta, President of the Swiss Confederation: The commission spokesman has said it: The mandate according to the National Council’s rejection resolution requires no content revision of the bill, on the contrary. The order expressly requires that the basic structure of this bill be adhered to, as it also primarily concerns this cascade employer, authority, public and the intended creation of incentives for employers to create internal reporting offices.
We already take this business back and will do our best. But I also have to tell you that it won’t be easy. “Simplify” is a nice word, everyone likes that. But simplifying means going into less detail. Then, in the end, people say again: “But that has to be regulated! There must be very clear rules, so that everyone knows when who does what…” We will be faced with this dilemma not only here, but also here, that we may then have a loss of precision; it will be a balancing act.
Once again, I think it’s worth leaning over here again, looking at how we can find a complete, precise, simple and understandable formulation. When we find them, I’ll be the first to rejoice.