Our most fundamental rights & gains are at risk

Attack on collective work agreements (CWA), a slap in the face for employees!

For years, the OGBL and the LCGB have been calling for a reform of the legal framework for collective work agreements in order to increase the number of CWAs and negotiate more modern CWAs tailored to employees‘ needs and demands.

However, the Minister of Labour supports employers to render CWAs meaningless by:

• reducing the mandatory content of CWAs to a strict minimum;
• the possibility of negotiating CWAs that disadvantageously deviate from the labour law;
• the possibility of negotiating CWAs without trade unions.

The Minister‘s plan, presented to the Standing Committee on Labour and Employment (CPTE) on 8 October 2024, is nothing less than a sell-out of employees‘ rights and achievements.

Indeed, calling into question the right of trade unions to negotiate and sign CWAs means:

• calling into question all existing CWAs;
• promoting CWAs without added value for employees;
• calling into question all employees‘ legal rights and achievements.

For the Minister and the employers, the ideal CWA is one that:

• sells off all the legal or extra-legal rights and achievements of employees that bother the employer;
• enables the employer to come to terms with whoever is willing to sign CWAs that cost him nothing.

Clearly, neutral delegates, without the support of a nationally representative trade union, do not have the necessary bargaining power to defend and impose improvements on the employer.

This reform is therefore a frontal attack on the most fundamental rights and achievements of all employees in Luxembourg!

It calls into question all the trade union gains in the CWAs:

salary scales
additional leave
13th month
reduced working hours
participation in company profits
etc.

It jeopardises all the major social advances that the unions have fought for:

automatic wage indexation
the social minimum wage
social security systems (health insurance, pensions and long-term care)
family benefits (child benefit, parental leave, etc.)
the 40-hour working week
statutory holidays and rest periods
etc.

The OGBL and the LCGB say NO
to this scandalous policy
aimed at destroying the social
achievements of employees!