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Planned Revision of the Federal Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities

Proposed Bill or Initiative

Authors: Ueli Sommer, Partner, and Regula Rhiner, Senior Associate – Littler | LEL

The Federal Council has initiated the procedure to partially revise the Federal Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities to significantly expand the rights of disabled people in private employment relationships.

The proposed revised Act would expressly prohibit direct or indirect discrimination against disabled people in all phases of employment, including the application process. It would obligate employers to take reasonable precautionary measures to prevent, reduce or eliminate disadvantages of disabled people, assessing whether, and which, measures need to be taken. The interests of the disabled person and those of the employer (such as size of the enterprise/company and financial resources) would have to be weighed in each individual case. Affected employees would be entitled to demand precautionary measures and seek compensation in court for discrimination in hiring or termination.