Les enseignants qui suivent une formation professionnelle continue (FPC) plus importante que celle prescrite par la loi devraient à l‘avenir avoir la possibilité de reporter plus d‘heures de formation continue que les 16 heures prévues actuellement à la période de référence suivante. Début mars 2024, le SEW/OGBL a exigé, dans une lettre adressée au ministère de l‘Education nationale, la suppression du plafond de 16 heures de FPC transférables à la période de référence suivante. Lors d‘un entretien avec le SEW/OGBL, le ministère a accepté d‘augmenter le plafond.

Lors de cette entrevue, le SEW/OGBL a également exigé une définition plus précise de la catégorie de formation continue «Recherche et lecture» qui s‘applique aux écoles secondaires: actuellement, la direction respective de l‘école doit approuver au préalable un travail de recherche pour que celui-ci soit reconnu comme formation continue pour un maximum de 9 heures. Cela a déjà conduit à ce qu‘une direction d‘école reconnaisse à un enseignant un travail de recherche sur le thème de la Shoah comme formation continue, alors qu‘une autre direction d‘école n‘a pas reconnu exactement le même travail de recherche d‘un autre enseignant. C’est pourquoi que le SEW/OGBL exige des critères objectifs et compréhensibles: comme le stipule l‘Instruction ministérielle du 22 juin 2018, le travail de recherche doit soit servir un projet interne à l‘école, soit être d‘intérêt national; en outre, le travail de recherche effectué doit être vérifiable sous forme d‘un rapport écrit ou d‘un résultat. L‘accord de la direction de l‘école ne devra plus être nécessaire à l‘avenir si ces deux critères sont remplis. Le ministère de l‘Education nationale a promis au SEW/OGBL de mettre en œuvre cette exigence.

En outre, le SEW/OGBL a exigé que des diplômes académiques supplémentaires, en rapport avec le travail de l‘enseignant respectif, soient reconnus comme formation continue et a réitéré son exigence que l‘Instruction ministérielle correspondante prenne également en compte des cours de langues dans les trois langues administratives. Ces cours de langue sont principalement suivis par des enseignants internationaux qui, selon la loi, ne doivent maîtriser qu‘une seule des trois langues administratives au niveau B2 et qui souhaitent améliorer leurs connaissances linguistiques. Jusqu‘à présent, le SEW/OGBL n‘a reçu que la promesse orale que de tels cours de langue seraient reconnus comme formation continue, mais à l‘avenir, ce type de formation continue devrait également être ancré dans la loi.

During a recent meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Children (Ministère de l’Education nationale, de la Jeunesse et de l’Enfance – MENJE), a SEW/OGBL delegation exchanged views on transfer rights for part-time teachers.

Secondary school teachers with part-time work (e.g. colleagues who have to limit their working hours for health reasons, but especially women who reduce their working hours after the birth of a child) are currently facing discrimination compared to their colleagues with full-time work, if they wish to transfer to another school. For the SEW/OGBL, the decisive criterion should be the seniority of service, not the number of teaching hours.

The SEW/OGBL is also calling for an end to the discrimination suffered by supply-teachers at this level.

Several concrete results emerged from the meeting with the Ministry.

According to Ministry representatives, SEW/OGBL’s demand for a real right to transfer for part-time teachers will be implemented. This is an important step in our commitment to greater equality.

It is intended that, in future, the actual need for vacant hours in a secondary school will be announced during the transfer procedure, so that even part-time teachers can apply for these posts. Here, SEW/OGBL’s demands regarding criteria will be taken into account as far as possible: status, seniority and exam results will in future be decisive for the allocation of the post, and not the number of teaching hours. A proposal to this effect has been announced by the Ministry.

The Ministry has also announced that it is responding positively to the SEW/OGBL’s demand for the introduction of a right of transfer for supply-teachers. A specific transfer procedure will be established for this group of teaching staff. This should meet the SEW/OGBL’s demand that “chargés” can remain at their school if they complete the “fonctionarisation” procedure after 15 years’ service or more.

The only drawback is that there is no provision for a transfer procedure for teaching staff at International and European Schools. The SEW/OGBL will maintain its demand that these teachers should also benefit from a right of transfer in order to be able to apply for vacant posts in International or European public schools.

Press release from the SEW/OGBL secondary department
March 15, 20

A delegation from the Higher Education and Research Department of SEW/OGBL, the only union represented in this sector, recently met with the new Minister of Research and Higher Education to exchange views on the coalition agreement and the OGBL’s positions. The OGBL delegation, made up of secretaries in charge of negotiations and staff delegates from the University of Luxembourg and the public research centers, focused on issues related to the working conditions and salaries of staff in the sector.

In particular, one crucial issue is no longer included in the coalition agreement of the new government: the fight against researchers’ job insecurity. Concerned by this setback, the OGBL questions the government’s willingness to do all it can to support the academic and research professions. The OGBL fears that the attractiveness of research in Luxembourg will be increasingly reduced. Despite the OGBL’s hard work, which has led to collective agreements covering almost all public higher education and research staff, the union points out that these agreements do not close the wage gap with the civil service or even with staff in hospitals, whose pay scales in the respective collective agreements (FHL and SAS) are parallel to those of the civil service.

The room to manoeuvre in the different collective agreements in the higher education and research sector is becoming increasingly limited, as the state’s allocation does not keep pace with inflation. In this context, the ministry’s representatives stressed the government’s determination to maintain a high level of investment in the sector, while pointing out that Luxembourg remains a very attractive country for international workers, including researchers. They did not exclude the possibility of an upward revision of the budget allocated in the next multi-annual agreements.

Nevertheless, the OGBL points out that international researchers face a major problem of job insecurity, given the still very high proportion of fixed-term contracts, often without the prospect of a permanent contract, and the exorbitant cost of housing in Luxembourg. The union urges the ministry to take these factors into account to combat these growing phenomena.

The OGBL also had the opportunity to present to the Minister its worrying observations from the field regarding the increasing workload and performance pressures faced by teaching staff, researchers and support staff. The ministry representatives expressed their willingness to review the performance contract indicators, with an emphasis on the sustainable socio-economic impact of research, and not just on the number of publications or patents filed. The OGBL, while welcoming the Ministry’s position, also reiterated during this exchange that the staff delegations should be consulted by the institutes’ managements prior to the negotiation of the multi-annual agreement with the ministry, since these indicators have a direct impact on the working conditions of the staff.

Furthermore, the OGBL raised the issue of the development of infrastructure, and in particular the absence of any reference in the coalition agreement regarding the consolidation of the LIH into one single building. The ministry representatives stated that this project is still underway and should be completed by 2030.

During the meeting, a number of other important issues were raised, namely the continuing restrictions on access to telework – with the new European framework agreement not being applied in the sector – the question of the status of researchers without a doctorate at the university (R&D specialists), the impact of artificial intelligence on working conditions, and the adjustment of the remuneration of temporary university staff, which has not been adjusted to inflation for more than 10 years.

The meeting was characterized by open dialogue. The OGBL now looks forward to the implementation of the various options raised, which we hope will meet the expectations and needs of staff in the sector.

Press release from the SEW/OGBL Higher Education and Research Department,
February 12, 2024

On January 22, 2024, after more than a year of lengthy negotiations, the OGBL, the only union represented on the staff delegation of the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), and the LISER management signed the renewal of the collective bargaining contract (accord collectif de travail – ACT) covering some 180 employees. It should be noted that the ACT is a subordinate contract to the Framework Agreement for Public Research Centers.

The new contract was signed for a period of 3 years (from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2026) and includes a number of notable improvements:

• an increase in the value of meal vouchers from €8.40 to €10.80 and the decoupling of meal vouchers from the collective performance bonus. Under the previous contract, the guaranteed portion of this bonus was paid in the form of meal vouchers. These two elements are now completely independent;
• a significant salary increase for PhD students, starting in January 2024 and providing for salary progression;
• a revision of the career map and the salary ranges for each career and grade, including an increase in the maximum amounts potentially achievable for all careers and the merger of the former B1 and B2 careers into a single career, in line with the principle of alignment with the most advantageous range;
• a one-off signing bonus in the form of an additional half-day’s leave for 2024 and the possibility of using this half-day in subsequent years, depending on the achievement of LISER’s collective performance targets;
• alignment with the guaranteed qualified minimum social wage after 10 years of service for employees in grade 1 of C careers (research support);
• communicating the salary scale in job advertisements;
• ensuring the principle of non-discrimination in a gender-sensitive manner in all commissions and bodies of the Center;
• textual clarifications on teleworking, flexitime rules and staff career and classification committees;
• the introduction of an article on respect for the right to disconnect;
• an increase in the budget previously allocated to sustainable mobility (M-Pass) from 5,000 euros to 6,000 euros per year, in favor of a new policy of soft mobility and well-being at work, with concrete actions and measures.

The OGBL would like to thank the LISER staff for their support during the negotiations.

Press release from the Higher Education and Research Department of the Education and Science Syndicate (SEW) of the OGBL, January 23, 2024

The publication of the latest results of the PISA study has once again brought its share of analyses and explanations, but also adjustments, solutions and new reforms. While the initial mediocre results came as a shock, they have since been greeted with growing public indifference. On the frontline, teachers anticipated these declining scores and watched with resignation as reforms and counter-reforms took shape without addressing the root of the problem.

The coalition agreement, which outlines education policy for the coming years, remains in the neoliberal vein, using a very specific interpretation of the aforementioned scientific support. This approach completely ignores the causes of the PISA (or other) results and avoids asking the right questions. Other countries, however, seem to be taking a different tack.

In France, the newly appointed Minister of Education has chosen to go back to basics: revising and simplifying primary school curricula and labeling textbooks, reintroducing grade repetition, making the transition to collège conditional, promulgating level groups, putting an end to academic correction for baccalaureate grades – these solutions read like a conservative turnaround. All of this is complemented by the use of AI for special needs students and a number of other contemporary measures to demonstrate that we’re on the road to the 21st century, not back to the 19th.

On this side of the border, Luxembourgish teachers are incredulous: Do we still have the right to demand at school?

The French Academy defines “exiger” (to demand) as “an obligation to be fulfilled” and/or “what an individual, a group, a collectivity requires or expects of others”. The concept of demand can therefore only function with an authority that has the right to formulate this demand. In Luxembourg, however, the reforms of the last decade have gradually deprived the school of this authority.

Irrespective of developments in society, since the 2009 reform, the political choice has been to transform “primary school teachers” (historically the bearers of authority) and secondary school teachers into “civil servants within the framework of education” for the purposes of governance. In fact, from this managerial point of view, change is more easily implemented in a highly hierarchical context that reduces the worker in contact with the raw material to a mere executor. Based on neoliberal organizational theories, production must be adapted to the wishes of consumers, with numerous internal and external experts and various audits framing the process.

In a very short period of time, the Luxembourg school system has seen a multitude of experts, institutions and external audits carry out countless evaluations (the only thing that escaped evaluation was the reform itself). Many parallel and redundant concepts have been developed and proposals for improvement have been made to schools with little or no attention paid to their possible implementation. On the other hand, the law gives parents the right to be involved in many areas (cycle lengthening, PDS changes, CI proposals, CC supervision, etc.). The combination of these two factors completely undermines the credibility of the expert in the field, while leaving him/her with full responsibility. This deliberate erosion of authority in and out of school, and the permissiveness imposed (rather than the requirement) is putting our society at risk and is beginning to have an impact on law enforcement and the judiciary.

Demanding, excellence, a taste for effort and a job well done, rigor, consequences – all these concepts (and even values) no longer fit the image of Luxembourg’s public basic schools and secondary schools as portrayed by current policy.

For demanding parents who demand a demanding school, the creation of “international” public schools offers a seemingly attractive alternative, while the more well-off can opt for private schools, supported and often even subsidized by the ministry.

And yet, every good teacher must be demanding with his or her students, a prerequisite for bringing them to the peak of their abilities. However, the current tendency in Luxembourg’s national education system to prioritize living together (at any cost) over the transmission of knowledge (which in no way excludes living together), while at the same time demanding (!) that schools increase their efficiency and the performance of their students, means that teachers have to square the circle – the wave of burnout that is overwhelming those who have chosen to remain in contact with their students speaks volumes about the feasibility of this (impossible) mission.

Will we in Luxembourg wait for the results of the next study to put learning back at the heart of school? Or will these results finally sound the death knell for the public school system, which will then be dismantled and privatized for obscure reasons of efficiency that do little to conceal the monetization of education along Anglo-Saxon lines?

The coalition agreement hides the real problems and continues the undermining of public schools, using carrots and sticks, while cunningly increasing the pressure on schools. This makes it impossible for the school to fulfill its primary mission, which is gradually being pushed into the background. Far from being a step towards democracy, the rejection of authority in schools is a step towards authoritarianism – a phenomenon that schools will undoubtedly once again be called upon to combat effectively without authority.

Press release of the Education and Science Syndicate (SEW) of the OGBL,
January 9, 2024