Article

Art.L.166-2, Art.L.511-27

Description

An employer who intends to dismiss at least 7 employees over a period of 30 days or at least 15 employees over a period of 90 days for reasons not related to employees' conduct must follow the procedure set up for informing public authorities about collective redundancies.

In the first instance, the employer must inform the national public employment agency ADEM and employees' representatives or the employees themselves if the company regularly employs fewer than 15 employees. Before proceeding with dismissals, the employer must begin negotiations with the employees' representatives in order to establish a redundancy plan. In order to do this, the employer must notify employees' representatives of the employee's intention to implement a collective redundancy and provide them with the following information in writing preferably before the start of negotiations, or at the latest at the start of negotiations:

• detailed reasons for the collective redundancy;
• number and categories of employees to be made redundant;
• number and categories of employees that are usually employed;
• period during which the redundancies will take place;
• criteria to be used to identify the employees for redundancy;
• method used for calculating any financial compensation that goes beyond the amounts established by law or collective agreement, or failing this, the reasons for refusing such compensation.

The employer must send a copy of  the document addressed to the employees' representatives to ADEM at the latest when negotiations begin. ADEM, on its part, will forward a copy to the national Labour and Mine Inspectorate (Inspection du travail et des mines, ITM). The employer must also provide employees' representatives or, should there be no employees' representative, the employees themselves, with a copy of the notification sent to ADEM. Employees' representatives may also report their observations to ADEM, which will forward a copy to the labour inspectorate.

In addition, if the company regularly employs 15 employees or more, the employer must notify each individual dismissal for economic reasons to the Conjuncture Committee (Comité de Conjoncture). The notification must be sent at the latest when employees receive notification of their period of notice. The Committee can then invite the social partners to negotiate on a job retention plan which must at least explore the scope for avoiding redundancies, mitigating their consequences, taking steps to assist redeployment, and providing the provision of financial compensation.

Commentary

The Conjuncture Committee consists of four representatives of the government, four from the employers and four from the trade unions. It is under the authority and coordination of the Ministry for Economy.

The National Conciliation Office (Office National de Conciliation, ONC) deliberates in cases where companies and staff representatives cannot reach a consensus as regards social plans or collective bargaining agreements. More information on these deliberations can be found in the Ministry of Work and Employment's Activity Reports.

Additional metadata

Cost covered by

None

Involved actors other than national government

Employer organisation Public employment service Trade union Works council Other

Involvement (others)

Conjuncture Committee; experts; National labour and mine inspectorate

Thresholds

Affected employees: 7
Company size: 7
Additional information: There are two company eligibility thresholds: - at least 7 employees over a period of 30 days; - at least 15 employees over a period of 90 days.

Sources

• Labour Code
• Guichet.lu (governmental website) - Collective redundancies (English)
• Guichet.lu (governmental website) -Licenciement collectif (French)
• Ministry of Work and Employment, Annual report, 2021.