A check carried out by the Inspectorate of Labour and Mines (ITM) at the end of 2020 confirmed that many retail employees were working more than four hours on Sundays.

This despite the fact that in Luxembourg, the Labour Code provides that Sunday work is limited to four hours. Since then, negotiations between the Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (LCGB), the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL), and the Luxembourg Confederation of Commerce (CLC) to extend the Sunday working time of employees have not led to any agreement. The OGBL and the CLC are blaming each other for this failure.

The disagreement is mainly about the number of hours of overtime. While the OGBL wants one day off for every 24 hours, the CLC thinks that one day off should be given for every 50 hours.

The CLC would also like to increase working hours to a maximum of 96 hours, which would mean allowing eight hours of work a day more often than every other Sunday, while in exchange the employee would not even get two days off a year. An « unacceptable » idea to the OGBL, according to David Angel, head of the commerce sector at the trade union. Angel stated that the CLC has « gone too far » in its demand, their proposal concerns too many Sundays and it is totally unacceptable for the OGBL to « make employees suffer for this ».

CLC Director Nicolas Henckes explains that many employees and families have organised themselves in this way over the last few years and the decision to limit Sunday hours to four hours has « thrown their organisation off balance ». He stressed that he had received more negative comments from employees than from businesses. The 96 hours of overtime are non-negotiable for the CLC as they think that it would « allow some employees to reach their working hours quota ».

(Author: Diana Hoffmann, Photo: AFP)

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L’OGBL et la Confédération luxembourgeoise du commerce (clc) n’ont pas trouvé d’accord pour régler le travail dominical, toujours limité à quatre heures selon les textes en vigueur.

La clc fait échouer les négociations sur le travail dominical», communique mardi après-midi l’OGBL. «L’intransigeance de l’OGBL fait échouer les négociations», réplique la Confédération luxembourgeoise du commerce (clc), une heure plus tard. Ce qui apparaît certain à première vue, c’est que les salariés ne sont pas près de voir se régler la question du travail dominical, alors que chacune des parties revendique pourtant leur bien-être.

Photo : archives LQ/Julien Garroy

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Luxembourg’s labour inspectorate in December carried out more than 200 checks of Sunday working hours in the retail sector, prompting unions and employers to review the rules.

Shops are allowed to open on Sundays between 6am and 1pm, with the exception of six Sundays a year when longer opening hours are permitted. However, staff can only work four hours under current rules.

A spate of checks carried out by the Inspection du travail et des mines last December showed that many businesses don’t follow the law. Labour union OGBL in January kicked off talks with the Luxembourg commerce confederation (CLC) to work out a new system.

The CLC has proposed giving employees a balance of 156 Sunday hours per year. This would allow business owners to have staff work longer hours on individual days, but wouldn’t increase the number of hours employees can be called in to work on Sundays annually.

The OGBL said it would agree to the measure, but only as a temporary solution for one year during which it wants to renegotiate Sunday working hours as part of a collective work agreement. This would also regulate compensation for employees, such as a bonus, lieu days or extra holidays.

However, while for bigger companies this means simply amending existing agreements, many smaller businesses don’t have collective work agreements. And the CLC doesn’t foresee establishing one for the retail sector.

(Author: Jeremy Zabatta & DELANO staff, Photo: Matic Zorman)

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C’est là une des pistes discutées entre syndicats et Confédération luxembourgeoise du commerce. Cette règle pourrait supplanter les textes en vigueur qui ne semblent plus adaptés aux souhaits des salariés comme des gérants de magasins.

Voilà une initiative de l’ITM qui n’a guère plu aux commerçants concernés. Au terme d’une année 2020 compliquée en termes de business, voilà que l’Inspection du Travail était venue mettre son nez dans le fichier reprenant le temps de travail des salariés pour la période du 1er novembre au 13 décembre 2020. L’idée étant de vérifier si une centaine d’employeurs (pris au hasard) avaient bien respecté les règles applicables au travail dominical.

Et là, stupéfaction : sur les 90 enseignes ayant pris soin de répondre, près de la moitié (51 exactement) n’avaient pas respecté le Code du travail et son article L.231-4 stipulant que la durée maximale de travail des salariés occupés le dimanche ne peut excéder quatre heures dans un établissement de vente au détail. «La loi donne la possibilité de travailler plus que quatre heures le dimanche, mais les règlements grand-ducaux qui pourraient étendre le travail à huit heures n’ont jamais été pris», soulève Claude Bizjak, directeur-adjoint de la Confédération luxembourgeoise du commerce (CLC).

(Journaliste Patrick Jacquemot – Photo : dpa)

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