The Commission, Council and Parliament have been negotiating the European Directive on Corporate Social Responsibility for two years. Adoption was just a formality – now it’s all up for grabs. When it comes to voting on the text on Wednesday, Luxembourg must stand by its commitments on human rights, climate and the environment and support the Directive!

The compromise reached between the European Parliament, the Commission and the Member States on the European Directive on Corporate Social Responsibility would be a milestone for the human rights, the climate and the environment. It follows two years of intense negotiations, including the Luxembourg government. Many companies in Luxembourg and the EU support the agreement.

Adoption of the compromise would normally be a formality – but the government is suddenly questioning the directive. So on Wednesday, Luxembourg could help bring it down. Victims of human rights violations in supply chains risk being left out in the cold.

Luxembourg risks undermining its credibility. According to a recent ILRES poll, 87% of Luxembourgers want the government to respect its international commitments on human rights, climate and environment. Nine out of ten also believe that the government should be transparent about its positions in EU negotiations.

So far, Luxembourg has been committed to international standards, but under pressure from the ministry of finance, it has called for investment funds to be exempted from the duty of care. The whole project is now in danger of collapsing in its final stages. According to media reports, Luxembourg is demanding that certain holding companies or “sociétés de participations financières” (Soparfis) be exempted from due diligence requirements. In the government’s coalition agreement, the government has signaled its agreement with the negotiated European directive.

It is important that Luxembourg, as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, supports the directive in this crucial phase. An abstention would also be considered a “no” vote. It is important to remember that Luxembourg has not yet adopted a national law under the pretext of the need for European legislation. Opposing European legislation now would be an irresponsible “business first” attitude to the detriment of people, climate and the environment in our supply chains.

The “Initiative pour un devoir de vigilance”, which has 17 member organizations from civil society, and “Finance & Human Rights asbl” call on the government to say a clear YES to the European Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence, as a NO vote or abstention is synonymous with a loss of credibility.

Luxembourg, February 12, 2024

Since 2012, the Conseil syndical interrégional de la Grande Région (CSIRGR), with some 600,000 members belonging to eight trade union organizations in the Grand Est, Luxembourg, Wallonia/German-speaking community of Belgium, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, has been organizing its “Entretiens de Remich” at CEFOS in Remich, thus enabling the networking of trade union representatives at company level. The 11th edition of the “Entretiens de Remich” focused on the social and economic profile and value of a social and therefore modern Greater Region.

The participants rejected the attempts of some governments and associations to make the Greater Region, located at the heart of Europe, more attractive economically by means of a “low-cost”, rather supply-oriented strategy. On the contrary, the example of Luxembourg shows that the “brain drain” is increasingly directed towards the highest wages and social standards. With more than 267,300 daily cross-border workers and by far the fastest-growing population, the small nation-state at the heart of the Greater Region has proven that the fairy tale of “cheaper supply” is a success story only in the ideological books of a few neoliberals, but not in real life. According to acting president Eugen Roth, DGB Rhineland-Palatinate/Saarland, the exciting question is how the entire Greater Region can be gradually brought up to Luxembourg’s standard of living. The term “laboratory” or “test laboratory” often appears in statements by politicians, chambers of commerce and employers’ associations, even at the national level. Eugen Roth puts it this way: “You can negotiate with the unions if, in the spirit of best practice models, the highest social and living standards, such as those in Luxembourg, are the guiding principle. This is the only way to ensure the success of the experiments.”

For the national and European levels, such best-practice approaches are crucial for successful policy design in broader contexts. Social disparities within the Greater Region must be overcome. This is not only a matter of social justice, but also of economic common sense. Doing things better, rather than cheaper, is the hallmark of forward-looking modernity in the struggle to attract employers and recruit skilled workers across borders. Proposals on this subject can be found in the numerous reports and expert opinions of the Economic and Social Committee of the Greater Region (CESGR). “Successful cross-border cooperation requires the highest social standards and nothing else,” said CSIRGR President Eugen Roth.

CSIRGR press release, October 20, 2002.

“Together for fair deal for workers”

More than 100 member organizations representing over 45 million workers across Europe gathered in Berlin from May 23-26, 2023 for the Congress of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). The event also marked the ETUC’s 50th anniversary. After five decades of struggle, the ETUC has never lost sight of its objective: to continue the fight for a fair and sustainable future for workers and their families.

The Congress is not only a place to bring together the European trade union movement in all its diversity, but also a moment to recapitulate on the past four years, and on what remains to be achieved in the next four.

The ETUC highlighted the challenges facing European trade unions today, and those they will have to face in the future, in a rapidly changing economic and social context. The economic and cost-of-living crisis currently affecting Europe is just the tip of the iceberg, concealing a series of problems that have worsened over recent decades: the weakening and privatization of public services, inequalities in social protection, job insecurity, labor shortages, the relocation of European industries and the rise of the extreme right in the EU are just a few examples.

Added to this is the emergence of new business models that are turning workers’ daily lives upside down, notably with the rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace and the transition to ecologically fair business models.  Faced with the rapid pace and impact of these developments, a new approach is essential to protect workers.

In the action program adopted at its Congress, the ETUC calls on European trade unionists and all those who uphold the ideals of the European trade union movement to take ambitious action. In particular, the program commits the ETUC to :

• strengthen the mobilization capacity of trade unions at national, regional and European level, in particular by coordinating trade union mobilization in close collaboration with national affiliates;
• put pressure on the EU to come up with concrete measures to protect jobs and workers’ incomes, and support unions and workers in their fight for real wage increases;
• provide more practical support to affiliated organizations in strengthening collective bargaining. In this context, the ETUC is committed, among other things, to supporting member organizations in implementing the directive on adequate minimum wages in the EU;
• fight against job insecurity, notably by making permanent work contracts the norm in the EU, and by demanding a ban on precarious jobs that penalize the most vulnerable workers. The ETUC is also committed to banning unpaid traineeships, calling for the adoption of a European directive on quality traineeships,
• anticipate changes in the context of green transition, by calling for a directive on just transition in the world of work;
• act to counter the digital transition, by calling on the Commission to propose a directive on the use of algorithmic systems in the workplace. In this context, the ETUC stresses the need to ensure that human control always prevails over automated decision-making processes. The ETUC is also committed to negotiating a framework agreement on telework and the right to disconnect, with a view to proposing its adoption in a directive;
• support the trade unions in their campaigns for shorter working hours;
• commit to a strong European industrial policy, with effective public investment to support quality jobs. The ETUC will also defend investment in public services and social protection to put an end to poverty and inequality, as well as a European monetary policy focused on full employment and quality jobs;
• strengthen European social dialogue, which cannot take place in the absence of strong national social dialogue.
• work for a real right to training and lifelong learning.

Other congress topics included the Parliament’s employment policy agenda, the rise of the extreme right in Europe, and the forthcoming European elections in 2024.

As is the case at every congress, the new composition of the ETUC secretariat was adopted:

• Wolfgang Katzian, President of the Austrian Confederation of Trade Unions (ÖGB) was elected ETUC President.
• Esther Lynch (ICTU) was elected General Secretary of the ETUC.
• Isabelle Schömann (DGB) and Claes-Mikael Stahl (LO-Sweden) were elected Deputy General Secretaries of the ETUC.
• Ludovic Voet (CSC), Tea Jarc (ZSSS) and Guilio Romani (CISL) were elected Confederal Secretaries of the ETUC.

Luxembourg was represented at the ETUC Congress by Véronique Eischen, member of the OGBL Executive Board, Jean-Claude Reding, vice-president of the Chambre des salariés du Luxembourg, Georges Merenz, president of the Landesverband (FNCTTFEL) and vice-president of the OGBL. The LCGB was represented by Katia Neves, in charge of the joint European Secretariat of the OGBL and the LCGB (SECEC).

As an ETUC member organization, the OGBL supports the ETUC’s ambitious action program. Given its importance for employees in Luxembourg, it will also be the subject of discussions and an action plan within its bodies.

Posted by OGBL, June 5, 2023