Switzerland the Swiss Confederation, is a country situated in the confluence of western and southern Europe. It is a federal republic composed with federal authorities seated in Bern. Switzerland is a landlocked country bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east, it is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Alps, the Jura, spanning a total area of 41,285 km2, land area of 39,997 km2. While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of 8.5 million is concentrated on the plateau, where the largest cities are located, among them the two global cities and economic centres of Zürich and Geneva. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the late medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria and Burgundy. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648; the Federal Charter of 1291 is considered the founding document of Switzerland, celebrated on Swiss National Day.

Since the Reformation of the 16th century, Switzerland has maintained a strong policy of armed neutrality. It pursues an active foreign policy and is involved in peace-building processes around the world. Switzerland is the birthplace of the Red Cross, one of the world's oldest and best known humanitarian organisations, is home to numerous international organisations, including the second largest UN office, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, but notably not part of the European Union, the European Economic Area or the Eurozone. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties. Switzerland occupies the crossroads of Germanic and Romance Europe, as reflected in its four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French and Romansh. Although the majority of the population are German-speaking, Swiss national identity is rooted in a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy, Alpine symbolism.

Due to its linguistic diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names: Schweiz. On coins and stamps, the Latin name, Confoederatio Helvetica – shortened to "Helvetia" – is used instead of the four national languages; the sovereign state is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product. It ranks at or near the top in several international metrics, including economic competitiveness and human development. Zürich and Basel have been ranked among the top ten cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with Zürich ranked second globally. In 2019, IMD placed Switzerland first in the world in attracting skilled workers. World Economic Forum ranks it the 5th most competitive country globally; the English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, an obsolete term for the Swiss, in use during the 16th to 19th centuries. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse in use since the 16th century.

The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, one of the Waldstätten cantons which formed the nucleus of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for "Confederates", used since the 14th century; the data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes perhaps related to swedan ‘to burn’, referring to the area of forest, burned and cleared to build; the name was extended to the area dominated by the canton, after the Swabian War of 1499 came to be used for the entire Confederation. The Swiss German name of the country, Schwiiz, is homophonous to that of the canton and the settlement, but distinguished by the use of the definite article; the Latin name Confoederatio Helvetica was neologized and introduced after the formation of the federal state in 1848, harking back to the Napoleonic Helvetic Republic, appearing on coins from 1879, inscribed on the Federal Palace in 1902 and after 1948 used in the official seal..

Helvetica is derived from the Helvetii, a Gaulish tribe living on the Swiss plateau before the Roman era. Helvetia appears as a national personification of the Swiss confederacy in the 17th century with a 1672 play by Johann Caspar Weissenbach. Switzerland has existed as a state in its present form since the adoption of the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1848; the precursors of Switzerland established a protective alliance at the end of the 13th century, forming a loose confederation of states which persisted for centuries. The oldest traces of hominid existence in Switzerland date back about 150,000 years; the oldest known farming settlements in Switzerland, which were found at Gächlingen, have been dated to around 5300 BC. The earliest known cultural tribes of the area were members of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures, named after the archa

Stewart v Moray Council ICR 1253 is a UK labour law case, concerning the information and consultation in the European Union. 500 employees of Moray Council made a request for an I&C procedure. This was over 10 per cent of the employees, but not 40 per cent. Moray Council claimed that it did not need an I&C procedure, because there was a collective agreement with a protocol about information and consultation with the union. Moray Council demanded a ballot with a 40 per cent threshold under ICER 2004 regulation 8 voting. Stewart argued the collective agreement did not provide for representation of non-union employees and had not been endorsed by all employees, so the collective agreement was not a ‘pre-existing agreement’ under regulation 8; the Central Arbitration Committee decided that the pre-existing agreement did not comply with all requirements because although a majority of employees were union members, one of the recognition agreements was unclear about when consultation would take place.

The agreement relating to school teachers failed to set out how the employer gave information to employees or their representatives or sought views on information under regulation 8. The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld; the employer was required to negotiate for an consultation procedure. ICER 2004 do not prescribe any way that an employee approval is to be demonstrated for a pre-existing agreement; this contrasts to negotiated agreements under reg 16. Elias J said the following. UK labour law Codetermination

Hudbay Minerals Inc. is a Canadian mining corporation. Tracing its history to the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Limited, the company has been mining in Manitoba for over 80 years. Much of its history has centered on Manitoba. HudBay now has operations in Manitoba and Yukon and is building a copper mine in southern Arizona; the Flin Flon orebody was discovered by David Collins, a local trapper, shown to prospector Tom Creighton in 1914. The first claim was registered in 1915, it took more than a dozen years to bring the mine into production because the huge, high grade ore body required large amounts of hydro energy, was isolated, copper production required a smelter. In 1927, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney founded Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting, which took over controlling interest in the Flin Flon property. By 1930, the mine, hydroelectric dam and railroad were in full operation. On December 21, 2004, OntZinc Corporation acquired HBM&S for C$316 million from Anglo American plc; the purchase was financed by a public offering of C$143.8 million of equity and the issue of US$175 million of debt.

The company changed its name to Hudbay Minerals Inc. The corporate head office was located in Winnipeg, but moved to Toronto in 2008. Founded as Pan American Resources Inc. the company first went public on the Montreal Exchange under the symbol PAN in the 3rd quarter of 1996. Pan American acquired all of OntZinc Corporation on March 12, 2002. Subsequently, the company renamed itself OntZinc Corporation on August 15, 2002. Upon acquisition of HBMS, the company renamed itself Hudbay Minerals Inc. on December 24, 2004. On August 26, 2008, Hudbay Minerals announced the completion of a business combination with Skye Resources Inc. Skye Resources was renamed HMI Nickel, was a subsidiary of Hudbay Minerals until Hudbay divested of the project through the sale of its interest in CGN to the Solway Group in September 2011. In November 2008, Hudbay Minerals and Lundin Mining announced an agreement to merge. However, in February 2009, after a ruling by the Ontario Securities Commission that Hudbay must allow its shareholders to vote on the plan, the companies announced that the deal had been terminated after realizing it was unlikely to win shareholder support.

On January 9, 2009, Hudbay Minerals suspended operations at Chisel North Mine in Snow Lake, Manitoba. The mine stopped producing in late February 2009, due to falling zinc metal prices and increased costs, restarted operations in 2010. Hudbay operates three underground mines in the province of Manitoba; the 777 Mine is located in Flin Flon, the Reed Lake Mine is located just off the highway past Cranberry Portage towards Snow Lake and Thompson, the Lalor Mine is located near Snow Lake. The 777 mine in Flin Flon produces copper along with lesser amounts of gold and silver; the original 1930 Island Falls hydroelectric facility is owned and operated by SaskPower. In Q1 2017, Hudbay produced 34,731 tonnes of copper, 20,723 ounces of gold and 30,570 tonnes of zinc; the company reported a quarterly loss per share of $0.01, impacted by lower sales volumes and by poor overall performance in all aspects of mining. The Fenix ferro-nickel project in Guatemala is owned by Compañía Guatemalteca de Niquel, 98.2% owned by HudBay Minerals from August 2008 to September 2011.

The Fenix Project in eastern Guatemala is a substantial brownfield nickel laterite mine and process plant, on care and maintenance since 1980. HudBay Minerals and two of its subsidiaries are subject to an ongoing $12 million lawsuit in Canada over the killing of a prominent Mayan community leader at the Fenix Mining Project; the lawsuit alleges that on September 27, 2009, security personnel employed at the Fenix mine surrounded and hacked at Adolfo Ich Chamán with machetes before shooting him in the head at close range in an unprovoked attack. An arrest warrant was issued for the Head of Security at the Fenix mine, Mynor Ronaldo Padilla Gonzáles. A non-governmental organization has referred to the murder as the "targeted killing of a well-known community leader." Amnesty International has stated with respect to the murder allegation "he allegations are serious, Amnesty International calls for a swift and impartial investigation into the death of Adolfo Ich Chamán and other incidents of violence, to make the results public and to bring those responsible to justice".

HudBay states that it and CGN have cooperated with all investigations conducted by Guatemalan authorities in connection with the incidents which occurred on September 27, 2009, in El Estor. CGN carried out an internal investigation and determined that none of its employees or security personnel were involved in the death of Chamán. In June 2013, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that the Canadian company could be held responsible for crimes committed in Guatemala, including the alleged murder of Adolfo Ich Chamán and the alleged sexual assault of 11 women from Lote Ocho. A jury notice was filed in December 2013; as of February 2018, the court action was ongoing. The Fenix mining project is subject to ongoing land claims by local Mayan communities. In 2006, the International Labour Organization, an agency of the United Nations, ruled that Guatemala had breached international law by granting the Fenix mining concession without first consulting with local Mayan people; the ILO released a report discussing the violation in 2007.

In late 2006 and early 2007, Skye Resources sought forced evictions of Mayan communities located on contested mine land. Homes were