Union campaign challenges outsourcing at Swiss Post and Swisscom

A new petition puts Swiss Post and Swisscom outsourcing under political pressure. Public-sector union Transfair launched the campaign on September 3, 2026, calling on the Federal Council and parliament to stop the transfer of jobs and specialist knowledge abroad. The union argues that both companies are majority-owned by the Confederation and therefore ultimately belong to the Swiss public.

The campaign targets decisions that Transfair says have been driven primarily by cost reductions. Swiss Post and Swisscom run infrastructure used every day across the country, including parcel delivery, payment processing, internet access and telephone services. The union says the location of the people who maintain those systems has consequences for service quality, security and Switzerland’s ability to retain technical expertise.

Greta Gysin, Transfair’s president and a Green Party parliamentarian, accused the Confederation of allowing the two companies to operate without sufficiently clear limits. The petition asks the government and parliament to establish safeguards for jobs that support essential public services. It also seeks to keep strategic and sensitive activities in Switzerland, particularly where security of supply or national security is involved.

Swiss Post has moved 130 IT jobs to Lisbon since 2022. The relocation is the clearest figure in Transfair’s case against outsourcing at the postal group. The union says the transfer represents more than a change in payroll location. It also moves technical knowledge connected to systems used by a company that provides nationwide services.

Swiss Post has put further plans for Lisbon on hold until summer 2027. The pause gives the company time before any next step, while leaving the broader dispute unresolved. Transfair wants existing jobs based in Switzerland to remain in the country when the main purpose of outsourcing is to reduce costs.

The union’s argument is closely tied to Switzerland’s labour market. It says offshoring reduces opportunities for apprentices and makes it harder for young people to enter technical professions. Retaining jobs in Switzerland, in its view, would help preserve career paths alongside the know-how needed to operate and protect critical systems.

The source material does not provide Swiss Post’s reasons for the Lisbon transfer or the company’s response to the petition. The campaign therefore places the burden on the government to define what protections should apply to a Confederation-owned enterprise.

Swisscom has outsourced more than 600 positions to Latvia and the Netherlands. The telecommunications company has also opened offices in Kosovo, Poland and Bulgaria, and announced plans for a new unit in Lisbon. Together, these moves have given the union a broader target than a single relocation project.

Transfair says Swisscom’s international expansion is carrying Swiss jobs and specialist knowledge beyond the country’s borders. Its concern centres on the systems behind internet and telephone services, which the union classifies among the activities on which the population depends. The petition calls for particularly strict protection where work involves sensitive operations or the security of supply.

The geographic spread also matters politically. The petition does not object to every international activity by definition. It calls for existing Swiss-based jobs not to be relocated abroad when cost cutting is the primary motive, and for strategic functions to stay in Switzerland. That distinction places the focus on the nature of the work and the public interest attached to it.

The source does not detail which Swisscom roles were transferred or how the company assessed security risks. It does establish the scale of the outsourcing cited by Transfair: more than 600 positions, alongside offices in five named European countries and a planned Lisbon operation.

The petition remains open until November 30, with delivery planned for December. Transfair will then submit it to the Swiss government and parliament, turning a workplace dispute into a formal demand for rules governing two Confederation-owned groups.

The union wants three principles to guide that debate. Existing jobs should not be moved abroad when relocation is mainly intended to cut costs. Strategic and sensitive activities should remain in Switzerland. Public ownership should carry practical obligations, especially for services linked to national infrastructure, security of supply and national security.

Transfair also warns about the long-term effects on Swiss expertise. If apprenticeships and entry-level opportunities disappear, companies may find it harder to replenish their skilled workforce in Switzerland. The union links that labour-market concern to service reliability, arguing that reduced domestic know-how could affect the quality of services used by households and businesses.

The campaign now faces a political test. Parliament and the government will have to weigh Transfair’s demands against the operating choices of Swiss Post and Swisscom, including their use of offices and teams elsewhere in Europe. The source gives no indication of how many signatures the petition has collected or whether the two companies will change their plans. Its next fixed milestones are the November 30 deadline and the planned December submission.