SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Liburn Mehmetaj, Roxane Allot and Andreas Hösli, Walder Wyss Ltd
authority shall have regard to matters includ - ing workplace safety, equal treatment of men and women, and sustainability, in compliance with Switzerland’s international obligations. • The Gender Equality Act mandates equal treatment of men and women in the work- place. Since 2020, companies with 100 or more employees must conduct a pay equity analysis to detect any unjustified gender pay differences and have it verified by an independent auditor or an employees’ rep - resentation, with results communicated to employees. Further, large listed companies are subject to “comply or explain” require - ment concerning gender representation: the Code of Obligations provides that each gender must be represented by at least 30% on the board and at least 20% in the execu - tive management, or otherwise the company must explain in the remuneration report why the target is not met and what measures have been taken to improve gender balance. 2.2.7 Soft Law on Business and Human Rights The Swiss government supplements formal reg - ulation with soft law instruments and policy guid - ance to encourage businesses to uphold human rights, see, for example: • Guidance Documents: Beyond the National Action Plans on UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (see 2.2.1 National Action Plan ), the government has issued several guidance documents related to business and human rights. For instance, Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) have published guidance documents such as the “Commodity Trading Sector Guidance on Implementing the UNGPs” .
• Government Support: The Swiss authorities provide support to companies to implement human rights due diligence and promote instruments assisting SMEs to map their sup - ply chains for risks (CSR Risk Check). • Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: Switzerland supports or hosts multi-stakeholder platforms that develop industry standards. For exam - ple, the Swiss Sustainable Cocoa Platform (SWISSCO) is a public-private partnership where the government, chocolate companies, NGOs and research institutes collaborate to eliminate child labour and improve farmers’ livelihoods in cocoa supply chains. • Public Procurement: In addition to statutory law (see 2.2.6 Other ), the Swiss govern - ment actively promotes the consideration of business and human rights issues in public tenders. 2.2.8 Regulatory Change Switzerland has recently enacted specific report - ing and due diligence requirements in respect of BHR and related topics (see 2.2.2 Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation and 2.2.4 Transparency and Reporting Require- ments ). Broadly speaking, these requirements were modelled on EU law. Currently, Switzerland is considering amendments to these require - ments, in step with recent developments in EU law. In particular: • Alignment With the EU Corporate Sustainabil - ity Reporting Directive (CSRD): On 26 June 2024, the Swiss Federal Council published a draft bill to amend the Code of Obliga - tions, titled “Transparency on Sustainability Aspects” (Draft Bill) and opened a public con - sultation. The aim of the Draft Bill is to align Swiss law with the recently enacted CSRD, but with certain deviations. Accordingly, the Swiss Federal Council proposed “partial”
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