The Swiss financial sector has had to work around not knowing employees’ vaccination status. finews.com conducted a survey on how it is dealing with business travel and a return to the office.
From Monday, people in Switzerland will have to show a COVID status certificate if they want to go into a hospitality venue, visit a concert, the theatre or the gym, Swiss health minister Alain Berset (pictured below) announced on Wednesday.
The government also allowed companies to ask their staff if they have a COVID certificate, a change from previous rules under which vaccination status did not have to be revealed to employers. However, this can only be done for the purposes of helping create mitigation measures or implementing a testing plan.
Financial institutions are dealing with this situation by allowing only an absolute minimum of business travel, encouraging working from home where possible, and a whole host of mitigation measures for those working in the office, a survey conducted by finews.com before the government's decision on allowing companies to ask to see certificates showed.
Business Travel Slashed
At Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, there are global restrictions on business travel. Employees are granted permission only in individual cases where a journey is deemed absolutely essential.
This even applies to CEO Ralph Hamers, who has yet to visit the U.S. – the Swiss wealth manager's biggest market by assets. The U.S. government has suspended travel from Switzerland and other European countries.
Credit Suisse, the country’s second largest bank, as placed heavy restrictions on business travel «given the current duty of care considerations», a spokesman said. He added that a more stringent approval process for travel had been put in place because of the pandemic.
Emissions Push
The spokesman also indicated that the coronavirus crisis had merely speeded up a trend as the bank had already been encouraging the use of telephone and video conferencing that travel would not return to pre-pandemic levels.
«Direct client contact remains an important element in the banking business and cannot be fully replaced by digital solutions...In principle, however, we expect fewer business trips in the future,» he said.
Insurer Zurich Tuesday said in a statement that it was cutting air travel by 70 percent to reduce its emissions. «The experience of the global pandemic has shown us a pathway to improving many aspects of our daily and working lives, and there’s no going back,» CEO Mario Greco said.
Throttling Travel
Re-insurer Swiss Re said it is advising against all non-business-critical travel. Private bank Pictet said it is allowing travel abroad, but to a lesser extent than before the pandemic.
Investment house Vontobel said its COVID task force advised employees on the risks and requirements of any business travel abroad. A spokesman said the task force was unaware of any business travel which had meant an employee having to quarantine.
Bern's Policy Key
In this context, all the institutions surveyed said their policies on COVID security in the workplace were based on government rules and guidelines. These included voluntary testing, social distancing, wearing masks.
The Swiss government is still recommending working from home where possible and some of the institutions said they were using this as a mitigation. Credit Suisse said around 70 percent of its employees in Switzerland are working from home, at Pictet the figure is 60 percent.
Swiss Re said it is is still recommending working from home and returning to the office remains optional. The maximum occupancy rate of its offices is 40 percent.
No Discrimination
A Vontobel spokesman indicated the inability to ask for vaccination status was not an issue as far as working in the office goes.
«The countermeasures taken by Vontobel apply equally to all employees. We do not consider it appropriate to differentiate between unvaccinated/unhealed and vaccinated/healed employees in relation to the countermeasures as even people who have recovered and been vaccinated can become infected and pass the virus on,» he said.
COVID Situation Tense
The coronavirus situation in Switzerland is far from rosy. The country has the second highest infection rate in Europe after the U.K. but has a much lower vaccination rate with 52.4 percent of the population having received both doses as of Tuesday compared with 80 percent in the U.K.
On Tuesday, national broadcaster «SRF» (in German) reported that 84 percent of intensive care beds in Switzerland were occupied with COVID patients taking up 43 percent of them. Ninety percent of COVID patients in intensive care have not been vaccinated, Berset said.
