Nov 11, 5:01 PM
Schaffhausen Voters to Decide on Hospital Staff Regulation Reform
A referendum on 29 November will determine whether cantonal hospital personnel remain civil servants or transition to independent employment conditions.
Voters in the Canton of Schaffhausen will decide on 29 November 2026 whether to remove employees of the public hospital system from the cantonal administrative framework. The proposed revision of the cantonal Hospital Act aims to transfer responsibility for employment conditions directly to hospital management.
Spitäler Schaffhausen is among the largest employers in the canton, with 1,734 staff members who provided 11,911 inpatient and 96,072 outpatient treatments in 2025. Under current legislation, cantonal personnel law governs wages, working hours, and vacation allowances for most hospital workers, leaving parliamentary oversight in control of the institution's primary expenditure.
Hospital management stated that operational autonomy is necessary to address shortages of qualified medical personnel through targeted wage adjustments and shift bonuses. Under the statutory proposal, management would be legally bound to negotiate a collective employment agreement with employee associations to establish minimum wage thresholds and safeguard working standards.
The cantonal parliament approved the statutory amendment in August 2026 by a vote of 43 to 0. Members of the Social Democratic Party abstained during that vote to prevent the four-fifths majority required to bypass a referendum, subsequently issuing a recommendation to reject the proposal. While the Green Party granted its members a free vote, all other political parties and the public service union VPOD endorsed the measure.
The Social Democrats argued that healthcare remains a core public service that requires direct parliamentary oversight to preserve working conditions for hospital staff. Should voters approve the measure, Schaffhausen would adopt an administrative model similar to cantons such as Zurich, Bern, Basel-Stadt, and St. Gallen, where public hospital employees are no longer classified as traditional cantonal civil servants.
Written by Martina Kirchner martina.kirchner@alpineweekly.com
