Facts
The Insurance Fund of the City of Zurich is a public law pension institution without its own legal personality. By a resolution dated April 2, 1997, the City Council of Zurich amended the statutes of the Insurance Fund such that for the 1997 fiscal year, the employer's risk contributions were waived. Instead, the 1996 annual profit of the pension fund was to be used to finance these risk contributions. The Conference of Staff Associations (KPV) unsuccessfully filed a supervisory complaint against this amendment to the statutes and ultimately appealed to the Federal Supreme Court with an administrative court appeal.Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court holds that the procedure of the City of Zurich violates federal law. While in the case of public law pension institutions, the employer contributions can generally be unilaterally reduced by the legislator by amending the relevant decree accordingly, the present resolution of the City Council to finance the employer's risk contributions for the year 1997 from the free assets of the pension fund does not constitute a permissible reduction of contributions. Rather, it constitutes an impermissible circumvention of Art. 66 OPA, according to which the employer contributions are to be paid by the employer itself. The free assets of the pension fund may not be…