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EMPLOYMENT

‘We eat pork’: Swiss company’s job listing for a driver accused of discrimination

An online job listing seeking a 'Swiss' driver has caused outrage among members of Switzerland's migrant community.

'We eat pork': Swiss company's job listing for a driver accused of discrimination
Photo: dedivan1923/Depositphotos

An online job ad for Schärer Transport AG, a logistics company based in the canton of St Gallen, has been called out for discrimination by Switzerland's Federal Commission Against Racism (CFR).

“By emphasizing the desire to hire a 'Helvetian' and eating pork slices and sausages, we can assume that certain specific groups of the population are excluded,” Alma Wiecken, head of CFR, told Swiss daily 20 Minutes in response to furore at the online job listing. 

The advert's language also caused uproar among Swiss with a migrant background. The advert emphasizes that the company seeks an 'Eidgenossen', a term used to refer to somebody of Swiss origin, which can also have far-right connotations too. 

“From the onset it becomes clear that the management of Schärer Transport AG does not want to hire people with a migration background,” wrote Bujar Zenuni, president of the Switzerland's Social Democratic Party's faction of people with migrant backgrounds. 

READ ALSO: Swiss court rules 'foreign gypsy' cartoon was racist

The ad states that “workers happily eat a pork steak and sausages together after work,” which Zenuni argues discriminates against several demographic groups who abstain from eating pork. 

“This is probably the first job ad that explicitly mentions what to eat after work. It sends the clear signal to Jewish, Muslim or vegetarian people, whether or not they are 'Eidgnessen' (ED: Confederates), that they are expected to eat the same,” said Zenuni in his online post titled 'Please, no foreigner!'.

 

 

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RACISM

Swiss parliament wants ban on extremist symbols

Swiss lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of banning the display of extremist and racist symbols, starting with those of a Nazi nature.

Swiss parliament wants ban on extremist symbols

The National Council lower house of parliament voted by 133 to 38 in favour of banning the public use of racist, violence-promoting and extremist symbols, such as Nazi symbols.

Switzerland, which stayed neutral during World War II, has come under pressure to fall in line with a number of other European countries in banning Nazi symbols.

Full bans are in place in Germany, Poland and several other eastern European nations.

The Swiss parliament as a whole is now in favour, after the Council of States upper house voted for such a ban in December.

The plans would also cover gestures, words, salutes or flags.

The National Council also voted by 132 to 40 for the measures to be introduced in stages — a move the government supports.

A ban on easily identifiable Nazi symbols could be implemented quickly, while other racist and extremist symbols could be identified and banned further down the line.

“We don’t want a swastika or a Hitler salute in our country, ever!” said Green lawmaker Raphael Mahaim.

“Today, in Switzerland, it is possible, it is even permitted, to display a flag with a swastika on your balcony. It is possible to put a flag bearing the image of the SS on the windshield of your car. It is possible to give the Hitler salute in public spaces.

“This situation is intolerable.”

Debate on other symbols 

Justice minister Beat Jans said the government, called the Federal Council, had hitherto relied on prevention as the main pillar against racism, but now thinks legal measures are needed.

“Anti-Semitic incidents, particularly those involving the use of Nazi symbols, have increased sharply in recent times,” he said.

“Against this background, the Federal Council decided last week that it is positive about the gradual implementation of the motion.”

He said the government wanted to introduce a special law which would mean fines could therefore be imposed.

As for banning Nazi symbols first, Mahaim accepted that debates on other symbols “will be much more difficult”.

“For example, what about the Z symbol of Putin’s army of aggression? What about the Ku Klux Klan symbol? What about the hammer and sickle symbol?” he said.

The no votes and abstentions all came from the hard-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which is the largest faction in the lower chamber.

SVP lawmaker Barbara Steinemann said Switzerland had successfully been able to keep extremism down to “a base of a few meaningless weirdos”.

She said a ban on symbols would not prevent the “rampant” anti-Semitic attitudes in universities and “intellectual milieus”.

Steinemann said Nazi symbolism had risen only since the Gaza war erupted in October, and “even if you don’t like to hear it, this is the influence of immigration from non-European cultures.

“We are literally engaging in symbolic politics, and we shouldn’t be doing that,” the Zurich lawmaker said.

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