Shortage of skilled workers – Does a shortage of skilled workers lead to more municipal mergers? -News

There is a lack of specialists in the communities. But instead of merging, some just merge individual areas.

The shortage of skilled workers is not only affecting companies and hospitals, but also communities. They are looking for specialists, for example for their construction administration. This is shown by various examples from the canton of Bern. Smaller communities there are currently looking for a construction manager.

Building administration is part of the range of services provided by every municipality: everyone must be able to examine building applications, issue building permits and prepare planning transactions. However, without the appropriate specialists, this will be difficult.

Communities across the country are having difficulty finding qualified staff.

This is a general phenomenon, says Michael Strebel. As a political scientist, he deals with municipal affairs: “Municipalities all over the country have difficulties finding qualified staff.”

Lack of staff leads to merger

That’s why there are different strategies: Larger municipalities take over the construction management tasks for smaller ones, or smaller municipalities outsource the tasks to external specialist departments, or several municipalities combine their construction administrations to form a large regional construction administration.

The latter happened in the Gürbetal in the canton of Bern. First, two municipalities merged their construction administrations – due to a lack of staff. Today there is a regional construction administration based in Wattenwil, which takes care of construction administration tasks for eleven municipalities.

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Further mergers of communities to form regional building administrations are under discussion.

Symbol image/KEYSTONE/Walter Bieri

The Bernese municipalities are not alone with this problem: in the canton of Aargau there is a company that works exclusively as a construction administration for municipalities. There are also regional construction authorities in other cantons.

Further mergers are being discussed in Bern: for example in the region around Interlaken and in the Kandertal around Frutigen.

First steps towards merger?

It is unclear whether such a merger or the outsourcing of services due to a shortage of skilled workers is a first step towards a merger. Political scientist Michael Strebel says yes: “In the short term, regional construction authorities are an alternative, but in the long term they are a path towards merger.”

For Strebel, this sets in motion a dynamic that cannot be stopped so quickly: a merger often comes about because the municipalities cannot find enough specialist staff for administration on their own.

If you already work together everywhere, you might dare to merge at some point.

The more administrative work is carried out by a regional office, the less interesting the work in the community itself becomes. And the fewer communities find people. It could therefore be that a regional merger is a driver towards merger, says Strebel.

Daniel Wachter, head of the Office for Municipalities and Spatial Planning in the Canton of Bern, also sees this as preparation for a merger: “If you are already working together everywhere, you can dare to merge at some point.”

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The decision as to whether a construction project is approved or not still lies with the municipality itself.

Symbol image/KEYSTONE/CARO/Rupert Oberhaeuser

Urs Indermühle, president of the Wattenwil regional building authority and mayor of the neighboring municipality of Sehaften, contradicts this: Such a merger does not necessarily lead to a merger: “Where it makes sense, we work together, but the municipality still has the reins.”

Indermühle means: Even if a joint regional building administration examines building applications, the decision for or against a building permit still rests with the individual municipality.