European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
Art.L.511-1 to Art.L.511-15, Art.L.166-2, Art.L.513-3, Art.L.631.2
The legislation provides four short-time work arrangements to help companies facing economic difficulties:
Short-time work due to economic dependence
The short-time work scheme due to economic dependence (Chômage partiel pour lien de dépendance économiques) aims at businesses facing economic difficulties following the loss of one or more of their main customers or due to difficulties encountered by their customers. It can be applied to businesses which primarily work for another business whose amount of orders has dropped significantly or who have cancelled the existing contract; work for one or more other businesses (e.g. through subcontracting) which are in turn required to resort to short-time work in Luxembourg.
Short-time working due to cyclical economic problems
The short-time work scheme in the event of cyclical economic problems (Chômage partiel pour problèmes économiques conjoncturels) is intended to support businesses within crisis-stricken sectors and encountering economic difficulties. This scheme is aimed at businesses belonging to a sector declared to be in crisis by the government on the basis of analysis provided by the Conjuncture Committee (Comité de conjoncture). To avoid exposing Luxembourg's businesses to a loss of confidence of their suppliers and creditors, the list of sectors in crisis (determined by its NACE code) is not published.
Short-time working due to structural economic problems
The scheme for short-time work due to structural economic problems (Chômage partiel pour problèmes économiques structurels) is intended to support business encountering structural difficulties. Before applying for this scheme, the employer must consult the secretariat of the Conjuncture Committee (Comité de conjoncture) to check that the problems encountered are recognised as being of structural economic nature. The employer must also draw a restructuring plan at the request of the secretariat.
Short-time working in the event of force majeure
The short-time work scheme in the event of force majeure (Chômage partiel en cas de force majeure) can be applied in exceptional circumstances to businesses which encounter economic difficulties following the occurrence of an event beyond their control and which prevents the continuation of their normal economic activity.
Main rules
In any cases, businesses that make use of short-time work commit not to lay off employees for economic reasons.
The employer has to submit an application for short-time work to the secretariat of the Conjuncture Committee (Comité de conjoncture). The form must be duly signed by the employer and by the staff delegation. By signing the form, the staff delegation acknowledges that the employer has received the delegation and informed them about the application for short-time working. If the company employs fewer than 15 employees or does not have a staff delegation, each employee concerned must sign the form individually. The employer also has to inform and consult the trade unions until the next work place elections in the case of businesses bound by a collective agreement.
Since a reform adopted on 23 December 2016 (Loi du 23 décembre 2016 portant modification des articles L.511-5, L.511-7, L.511- 12 and L.631-2 du Code du travail), the permission to mobilise the provisions concerning short-time work can be granted for a maximum of 12 months instead of 6 months, to give more flexibility to companies to overcome their economical difficulties. Short-time work can only be granted for a maximum of 1,022 hours per year and per full-time employee. For persons working on a part-time basis, the limit of 1,022 hours are pro-rated. This provision abolished, since 2017, the former rule that within a single month, the employer could not reduce the hours worked by an employee on short-time working by more than 50 % of working hours.
During the period of short-time work, the employer pays each employee the salary due for every hour worked and a compensatory allowance corresponding to:
Employers also have to continue to pay the following to the competent public administrations: social contributions and withholding tax on salaries paid for hours worked, social contributions and withholding tax on the compensatory allowance paid for inactive hours with the exception of the following employer's contributions: accident insurance contributions and contributions for family benefits.
Short-time work schemes can be applied to all employees with their workplace in Luxembourg, whether they are under a permanent employment contract or a fixed-term employment contract. Agency workers, interns and apprentices cannot benefit from this schemes. The amount of time off work under short-time working arrangements may not exceed 50% of the normal monthly hours worked.
Working time accounts allow workers to save up time in order to complete personal projects. After they were successfully introduced in the public sector in 2018, the national parliament voted on a bill to implement them – on a voluntary basis - in the private sector on 12 March 2019. The law stipulates that employees must have had a work contract for at least two years in order to be eligible for a working time account. Such accounts are limited to 1,800 hours, and additional holidays, late hours or up to five regular holiday days can be used to supply them. Fixed one month in advance, accounts have to be requested in writing and the employer must grant the request as long as there will be no negative impact on work-related matters. Working time accounts can be created through collective agreements or by inter-branch social dialogue agreements to be sent to the Minister of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy.
As of October 2023, 103 requests were introduced by companies to the Conjuncture Committee (Comité de conjoncture) and the Committee gave green light to 85 requests, which corresponds to a total of 8,140 employees.
Eurofound (2015), Luxembourg: Working time flexibility, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/working-time-flexibility/luxembourg
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