Political rights City of Bern extends collection deadline for minimum wage initiative

Bern's municipal council has responded to the disappearance without trace of 1600 signatures for the minimum wage initiative. It has decided that the collection period will run until January 15, 2025.

Originally, the deadline would have expired on November 1. However, it recently became known that a registered letter containing 1,600 signatures to be certified had gone missing at the city chancellery. These signatures had been collected between the start of the collection at the beginning of May and mid-July.

To date, they have disappeared without trace. Investigations have so far been unsuccessful, the municipal council announced on Monday. It must be assumed that the signatures are definitely lost.

The municipal council is dismayed by the incident. The damage to the initiative committee could not be fully repaired. In order to keep it within limits, the start of the collection period had been postponed to July 15. This would allow signatures to be collected until mid-January.

Missing signatures not valid

The initiators welcomed this decision. However, they had also demanded that the missing signatures be declared valid. The municipal council did not respond to this request for two reasons, said city clerk Claudia Mannhart when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Firstly, it was not possible to know how many of the 1,600 missing signatures were actually valid. On average, around ten percent of the signatures to be certified are invalid in the case of municipal referendums.

Secondly, there was another, greater risk. If the 1,600 signatures had been declared valid, the same people could have signed the petition again.

The initiative committee now wants to intensify the collection of signatures. The aim is to submit the initiative within the old deadline. Anyone who signed the petition between the beginning of May and mid-July will be asked to sign again. In order for the initiative to go before the people, 5000 valid signatures are required.

A case for the judiciary

In any case, the story also has legal repercussions. On the one hand, the city of Bern has filed charges against persons unknown in connection with the missing signatures.

Secondly, the initiative committee is still not ruling out legal action against the city. According to the committee, the focus is on the possibility of a state liability suit with claims for damages.

SDA