Still no justice for police officers with a secondary school-leaving certificate!

After litigation against the Luxembourg state established that, during the 2018 police reform, hundreds of police officers should have had direct access to the B1 career on the basis of their secondary school-leaving certificate (the judges used the expression “de plano”, i.e. “by right”) and that, subsequently, the “voie express” mechanism (by which, since 2018, hundreds of civil servants without a high school diploma have received priority treatment on the basis of their seniority, i.e. they have moved up to career B1 ahead of civil servants with a high school diploma) was suspended because the judges had found it unconstitutional, one could assume that the relevant ministers had understood what had rung the bell.

This is not the case with Ministers Marc Hansen (Civil Service) and Henri Kox (Internal Security) who, with the “Accord relatif au mécanisme temporaire de changement de groupe de traitement dit “voie expresse” au sein de la Police grand-ducale”, signed on June 12, 2023 by the government, the SNPGL and the CGFP, have deliberately and knowingly allowed the injustices found by the Constitutional Court and the administrative tribunal to continue :

Civil servants with a secondary school-leaving certificate are still denied direct access to the B1 career.

Seniority continues to take precedence over diplomas, as there is no retroactivity.

What’s more, the way in which this project was drawn up is highly questionable and, indeed, unworthy of a minister. Ministers Marc Hansen and Henri Kox had previously excluded ADESP from all negotiations, thereby flouting article 1 of the Grand Ducal regulation of March 5, 2004: “Au cas où plusieurs associations représentatives pour les différents sous-groupes de traitement existent au sein d’une même administration, la représentation du personnel est constituée par les comités de ces différentes associations”.

Article 3 of the Grand-Ducal regulation has also been ignored: “Pour les matières où l’avis de la représentation du personnel est obligatoire […], le comité doit être consulté dès le stade de l’élaboration du texte. Il doit recevoir la documentation complète […] .”

It should be noted that no staff representation was consulted. ADESP, as the representative organization of police officers with a secondary school-leaving certificate, which from the outset defended the legitimate demand of hundreds of police officers concerned for classification in career B1, both internally within the police force and in the public eye, was here excluded from the discussions from the start. Since December, ADESP has repeatedly requested meetings, only to be left in the lurch. Instead, the government negotiated alone with the SNPGL/CGFP behind closed doors.

ADESP and OGBL are very clear in their opposition to the current draft, as both the draft and the agreement were concluded with total disregard for social dialogue, and the conclusions of the Constitutional Court and the administrative tribunal were clearly ignored in the project.

We also strongly criticize the actions of ministers Marc Hansen and Henri Kox. The three governing parties must ask themselves to what extent it is tolerable for ministers to ignore social dialogue and deliberately and consciously disregard decrees and decisions of the courts.

Press release by ADESP and the OGBL Public Services Syndicate, June 19, 2023