New jobs created by introduction of 36-hour week

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Sommer Industrie Luxembourg signed an agreement in June 1997 introducing a 36-hour working week in its maintenance department, and has thereby created new jobs which will preferably filled by unemployed workers registered with the Employment Administration.

Sommer Industrie Luxembourg SA, part of the Sommer group, is Luxembourg's 19th-largest company by size and employs 730 people. On 3 June 1997, it signed an amendment to its collective agreement for manual workers in its maintenance department with the Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (LCGB).

In a country where the 40-hour week is very firmly established, and where even the smallest reductions in working time are rare, the introduction of a 36-hour week is a significant event - even if it affects only a small number of workers.

The new four-shift scheme provides for an eight-hour working day but with weekly hours not exceeding an average of 36 hours. The number of weekly shifts has gone up from 15 to 18, thus making it possible to create new permanent posts and do away with temporary part-time jobs. Monthly pay has also been increased through higher night-shift supplements. The agreement will be tested for a year, and the social partners will announce their conclusions on it in April 1998.

The signatories also departed from normal practice by keeping to the legal obligation to declare vacant jobs at the Employment Administration (Administration de l'emploi, ADEM). By inviting an ADEM representative to the signing, and by explaining the special characteristics of the new jobs while at the same time inviting ADEM to put forward applicants who are registered unemployed, they demonstrated their intention to combat national unemployment actively, instead of simply recruiting from among the large numbers of job-seekers in Luxembourg's adjoining frontier regions.