Swisscom: bad news for those who will retire before?

Bad news for Swisscom employees wishing to take early retirement. According to the opinion of Syndicom, professional trade union, the biggest Swiss telecom operator plans to review its policy on pension fund by cutting the services offered.

The Complan Foundation Board, which manages the cash assets of the second pillar of Swisscom employees, think of suppressing the bridging pension for those who opt for early retirement, as Syndicom makes public today in a note; simultaneously, the conversion rate and the technical reference rate should be revised downwards.

According to Armin Schädeli, spokesman for Swisscom, it is the duty of the Board of Trustees take into account the difficult situation of pension funds and sift the necessary adjustments. Complan think to go down to 5.15%, added Schädeli, "but nothing has yet been decided." According to the spokesman, also Swiss Post and the Federal Railways are considering similar steps. In the note of the union, these projects are incomprehensible, especially in the light of wages and growing cadres bonus.

Swisscom announced last February an extensive restructuring that involves cutting 700 jobs in Switzerland, especially in customer service. In addition to the fine imposed by the Commission on competition, the operator has recorded a profit in 2015 fell by one-fifth of a year to 1.36 billion francs. The turnover is rather set back by 0.2% to 11.7 billion.