As Switzerland’s neighbors brace for a fresh pandemic wave, some Swiss financial services firms aren’t waiting for a national lockdown to act.
Swiss infection rates are on the rise, but the government wants to avoid new nationwide measures such as a lockdown, health minister Alain Berset said on Wednesday. The sanguine stance contrasts with neighboring Austria shuttering earlier this week.
In Zurich, more than three-quarters of those eligible are vaccinated – residents of more rural Swiss cantons have been less willing. Switzerland's drug regulator approved booster shots for a wider swath of the population earlier this week.
The Swiss government on Thursday asked several cantons – especially those with low inoculation rates – to strengthen their defenses and to prepare hospital wards for what is expected to be a rush of patient admissions. The issue is hugely politically charged, though a vote on Sunday over the government's ability to make emergency decisions to combat the pandemic is expected to pass.
No Cert, No Entry
The national stance has big employers torn between commanding staff back to work, asking them to demonstrate their health to do so, or dispatching them back home again, a survey by finews.com found.
Two – Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance – are electronically linking Covid certificates which attest to either a recent vaccination, convalescence from the illness, or negative test, to their entrance badges, «Tages-Anzeiger» (in German, behind paywall) reported.
Buzzing With Shoppers
The caution appears to be an outlier thus far: the tony shopping streets around Zurich’s Paradeplatz are buzzing with as many holiday shoppers as one week ago – compared to a relatively empty Mariahilfer Strasse in Vienna.
Passenger frequency on public transportation in Zurich is also steady, according to mobility data reported by «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (behind paywall, in German). For firms, the resurgence of infection rates is a challenge: strict privacy laws protect employees from disclosing much about their health status.
«Our Culture Is Close»
Banks have been keen to have client-facing staff back in offices. Zurich’s cantonal bank, where staff is largely back on site, is a prime example: the government-backed lender is eschewing asking employees about their health and inoculation status or requiring a Covid certificate.
Zuercher Kantonalbank's «culture demands we be close to individuals – clients as well as employees,» top private banker Florence Schnydrig Moser told finews.com earlier this month. By contrast, Credit Suisse said two-thirds of its staff in Switzerland are still working from home. Masks aren’t required, provided people can maintain a safe distance.
Free COVID Tests
A source told finews.com the bank had asked for Christmas celebrations to be canceled. Credit Suisse offers free testing and recommends vaccination (it cannot require so under Swiss law). Employees who want to eat meals in the bank’s canteen must show a certificate – as they would be required to do at a restaurant as well.
Julius Baer said its domestic employees are combining home with physical presence work. Switzerland’s stock exchange operator SIX said jobs identified as «business-critical» are still in a split-working mode, or entirely from home. On average, roughly 60 percent of its staff are still working from home.
Reporting by York Runne and Samuel Gerber; writing by Katharina Bart
