Facts
X. and 95 co-plaintiffs, Z. and 11 co-plaintiffs, as well as Y. and 64 co-plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit against the Canton of Solothurn and various hospital foundations for wage discrimination based on Art. 8 Cst. and the Gender Equality Act. They claimed that the functions of Nurse DN 2 and Ward Manager were discriminatorily classified within the BERESO salary revision. The Administrative Court dismissed the claims, whereupon the appellants filed an administrative court appeal with the Federal Supreme Court.Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court partially upholds the appeals and remands the case to the Administrative Court for re-evaluation. It concludes that the so-called "minus class decision", by which the functions of Nurse DN 2 and Ward Manager were classified into lower salary grades, is to be considered discriminatory. The respondents have not proven that this decision was based on non-discriminatory comparative salaries from other cantons. Furthermore, the labor market argument was applied unilaterally to the detriment of the female-dominated nursing professions.
However, the original classification of the two functions based on the analytical job evaluation is not discriminatory. Also, the so-called "franc-based transfer"…