Yesterday evening, Swissmedic and its social partners on the employee committee and the transfair, VPOD and PVB trade unions reached mutual agreement on a redundancy scheme. This became necessary after Swissmedic was forced to announce in November 2025 that it would be cutting around 45 full-time equivalents over the next two years in addition to reducing material costs by 6 million Swiss francs. These measures are needed to stabilise the Agency’s financial situation.
Agreement will permit socially acceptable implementation of staff reduction
15.01.2026
After intense, constructive negotiations all parties are pleased with the agreement that has been reached. The redundancy scheme will take effect on 21 January 2026 and will allow the socially acceptable implementation of the headcount reduction from the end of January 2026.
The scheme will enable the therapeutic products agency to implement the necessary staffing measures and quickly provide affected employees with the necessary support. At the same time, the agreement will create clarity for all employees.
The agreement was preceded by a consultation process, during which the parties identified additional implementation-related measures. The social partners acknowledge the contribution made by everyone involved and share the desire to keep the number of redundancies in 2027 as low as possible.
Address for enquiries
Swissmedic
Media Unit
+41 58 414 03 90
transfair (trade union for postal, communications, public transport and government employees)
Fritz Bütikofer
+41 79 915 57 12
PVB (federal employees’ association)
Norma Giannetta
+41 31 938 60 61
VPOD (Swiss Public Services Union)
Christof Jakob, General Secretary
+41 77 447 29 03