The OGBL is pleased to announce the signing of the first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the employees of La Boutique du Coiffeur, a company specializing in the sale of hairdressing products, with approximately 40 employees.

The new CBA will apply from October 1, 2023 for a period of 3 years. It represents a further step forward in protecting and improving the rights and benefits of employees in the sector.

The main points of the CBA are as follows

• an increase in the Sunday premium to 90%, 20% more than the legal minimum
• an additional day off after 10 years of service – this provision rewards employees’ loyalty and commitment to the company
• clarification of the conditions for reimbursement of exceptional travel and parking expenses – in the case of exceptional travel, the employer will reimburse travel expenses at a rate of 0.30 euro/km, in addition to covering parking costs.
• the CBA includes a list of certain bonuses applied, together with their conditions, in order to ensure a degree of transparency with regard to financial rewards for employees.
• introduction of a salary scale – the gap between the qualified minimum social wage and the salary of store managers will be increased to maintain a 200 euro gap between the different salary levels.

Press release of the OGBL Commerce Syndicate,
October 20, 2023

On September 26, 2023, social elections took place at Hilti Luxembourg, a company with 17 employees specializing in the sale of professional tools for businesses. These elections marked a significant moment for the company, as they were the first social elections ever held there.

The OGBL won the election and positioned itself as an important force for the employees of Hilti Luxembourg. This victory reflects the OGBL’s commitment to employees’ rights and democracy within the company.

These social elections give employees a direct voice in company affairs and demonstrate their desire to work together to ensure better working conditions and effective representation within the company.

OGBL Commerce Syndicate press release,
October 19, 2023

It is with great pleasure that the OGBL announces its victory for the 70 employees of Coca-Cola Luxembourg, the fruit of an unprecedented collective commitment.

Friday the 13th would have been a bad omen! For the OGBL, it was not, because the day after the picket organized in front of the Coca-Cola Luxembourg headquarters, an agreement in principle was reached between the OGBL and management on the renewal of the collective bargaining agreement for the company’s employees until October 13, 2023. Obviously, this good news is not a coincidence, but rather the result of the commitment, the determination, the involvement and, above all, the strong actions of the union, hand in hand with the company’s staff delegation.

The two-year agreement, covering the period from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024, will be signed in the next few days. The advances made mainly concern the improvement of the purchasing power of the company’s employees. Here are the details:

• For 2023:
  • A one-time bonus of 700 euros for all employees, consisting of a 350-euro bonus and 250-euro net gift vouchers.
  • Almost 38% increase in on-call bonuses
  • 12.5% increase in the uniform maintenance bonus.
• By 2024:
  • An additional vacation day for every employee, with guarantees to prevent absorption in the event of legislative changes.
  • A gift voucher worth 150 euros net as of July 1, 2024
  • 1.4% salary increase, including a 0.9% salary increase on January 1, 2024, as well as an increase in the value of meal vouchers to a face value of 12.20 euros – in addition to the salary increase, this represents a net increase in purchasing power for employees of over 300 euros!

This agreement is a collective victory, because thanks to the OGBL’s efforts to maintain dialogue and ensure that the workers’ voices are heard, the impact of the total wage package has been multiplied by 10 since negotiations began – a good step towards a fairer distribution of the company’s wealth, of which the workers are the architects!

OGBL Commerce Syndicate press release, October 16, 2023

The example of the hotel, catering and restaurant sector shows the shortcomings of current collective bargaining legislation – and underlines the urgent need to reform it.

The results are grim. In the retail sector, only 38% of workers are covered by collective agreements. In the hospitality sector, the figure is just 21%. Two of the country’s largest economic sectors thus drive down Luxembourg’s collective bargaining coverage rate to just 59% for the economy as a whole and 53% for the private sector alone. That’s barely one in two employees, even though a European directive requires European countries to achieve 80% coverage.

“The outgoing coalition government’s manifesto calls for a review of collective bargaining legislation.

“Labour law has an important role to play, but it cannot regulate everything,” it says. “An important role must be played by negotiations between the social partners within the framework of collective agreements or cross-industry agreements. The relevant legislation, which dates back to 2003, will be subject to an evaluation, the results of which will be presented to the CPTE with a view to possible adaptations, taking into account the legislation which gives an important role to collective agreements (‘tariff autonomy’)”.

However, it is clear that this is not the case. The law on collective agreements has not changed. So how can we be serious about achieving the 80% recommended by the European Directive?

A look at the sectors with the lowest levels of collective bargaining coverage – commerce and horeca – reveals the extent to which current legislation penalizes the bargaining power of trade unions and hinders any desire to significantly increase coverage.

In these two sectors, where the proportion of workers earning the minimum social wage is also the highest, there is currently no sectoral agreement except for the one for the car repair sector.

At the same time, the employers’ organizations in these sectors continue to point to the labor shortages they claim to be facing. In their view, however, the reasons for this are clearly not to be found in unattractive pay and working conditions, but in a lack of motivation among potential employees, overly rigid legislation on working hours or excessive absenteeism.

In the hotel and catering sector (horeca), which has benefited greatly from state aid during the health crisis – and rightly so, with the support of the OGBL, which in particular signed a job protection plan – the OGBL contacted the Horesca employers’ association to hold an open discussion on a possible sectoral collective agreement.

While the Horesca Federation had met with OGBL representatives on several occasions to discuss short-time work and various forms of assistance, and had always stressed the urgency of the situation, its attitude was quite different when it came to discussing working conditions and wages: it did not even deign to reply to the various letters and calls from the OGBL.

Given this attitude, the question of linking the various government subsidies – paid for with taxpayers’ money, let’s not forget – to a collective bargaining agreement becomes very concrete.

Another question arises in the restaurant sector. This sector, which employs some 5,000 people and which, unlike cleaning or security services – which are very similar activities – does not have a collective agreement, is directly dependent on public contracts for its activities, for example in school canteens, “maison relais” or care facilities.

The sector is therefore directly financed by public funds – again, taxpayers’ money.

For many years, the OGBL has been trying to negotiate a sectoral collective agreement for catering staff, a project that has repeatedly failed due to the employers’ blocking principle.  A sectoral agreement would not only make the sector more attractive – which it needs – but would also resolve the thorny issue of job transfers in an environment where the employer can change overnight following a tender.

So far, however, apart from the fear of a possible large-scale social conflict, which is only just beginning to emerge, the employers in the sector have no “incentive” to break the deadlock in the negotiations. In fact, the companies can continue to pocket public money without having to provide any compensation in terms of working conditions and wages.

In recent years, the OGBL has made a number of efforts to increase the coverage of collective agreements: for example, a number of new collective agreements have been signed, particularly in the retail sector, covering more than 1,000 additional employees in the last two years.

But as long as the law on collective agreements remains unchanged, as long as there are no collective bargaining conditions attached to the granting of public aid or public contracts, these encouraging results will lag far behind the potential results that could be achieved through a thorough reform of the law.

Anyone who takes the European Directive on collective bargaining coverage seriously, anyone who claims to be serious about working towards higher coverage, cannot ignore this.

Since the opening of negotiations with the OGBL and employee representatives in November 2022, Coca-Cola Luxembourg management has continued to block discussions on the renewal of the collective agreement.

The start of negotiations was already marred by a lack of transparency on the part of management, which failed to present the company’s financial results in Luxembourg. Worse, it had completely ignored the employees’ list of demands and proposed a single bonus of a ridiculous amount for the year 2023.

The employees’ catalogue of demands called for a three-year agreement, including regular wage increases. That was the main demand. Unfortunately, from the outset, the employers’ side seemed to deny the social dialogue normally practiced in Luxembourg, refusing to communicate figures transparently and threatening to break off negotiations if the OGBL did not accept this proposal. A ridiculous proposal in view of the company’s recently published results: 276 million euros in profits for 2022 alone!

In this context, it was inevitable that the OGBL would have to acknowledge the failure of the talks. So in early June, the OGBL turned to the National Conciliation Service (ONC). Under pressure, Coca-Cola management finally agreed to discuss wage increases. However, the company’s proposal remains very modest and far from the employees’ demands.

Offering a symbolic one euro in recognition of the hard work of workers who have contributed to the company’s prosperity is nothing short of insulting.

After consulting with the company’s employees, the OGBL could only reject the latest proposal from Coca-Cola’s management, which seems unwilling to break the deadlock.

In this context, the OGBL, together with the staff, is prepared to take whatever industrial action is necessary to win the case. The industrial action will commence shortly.

Press release from the OGBL Commerce Syndicate, September 25, 2023

On July 27, the OGBL and the management of Lagardère Travel Retail Luxembourg signed a new collective bargaining agreement for the company’s approximately 40 employees. Lagardère Travel Retail Luxembourg operates the duty-free shops at Luxembourg Airport.

Despite difficult and lengthy negotiations, the OGBL is pleased with the agreement reached thanks to the hard work of the company’s syndicate and staff delegates.

The agreement covers a period of three years, from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2026. Here are the main advances that will benefit Lagardère Travel Retail Luxembourg employees

• increase of the Sunday bonus to 95% (instead of the 70% stipulated by the Labor Code).
• introduction of a salary scale based on the different job groups, with a flat-rate increase linked to the employee’s development and automatic promotion to the next step after one year’s seniority for sales staff.
• setting of the skilled minimum wage as the hiring wage (an employee can no longer be hired at the unskilled minimum wage).
• revaluation of various bonuses (between 4% and 9% increase).
• introduction of a monthly lump-sum bonus of up to 155 euros.
• revaluation of the lump-sum bonus earned by former Luxair employees by 8%.
• increase in the value of the lunch vouchers to 10.80 euros.
• gift voucher of 150 euros for all employees with at least one year of service at the time of signing the agreement.
• introduction of 4 hours annual leave for blood donation.
• in the event of a warning, reprimand and/or suspension of an employee, the employer is required to send a copy to the staff delegation.
• inclusion in the collective agreement of a reference to article L. 211-7 (3) of the Labor Code, concerning changes made by the employer to the work organization plan (POT) once it is in effect.
• inclusion in collective bargaining agreement of provisions relating to staff uniforms, taking into account changes made by the company.

Press release of the OGBL Trade Syndicate
July 31, 2023