Social partner involvement in the 2002 NAP

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This feature examines social partner involvement in Luxembourg's 2002 National Action Plan (NAP) for employment. It is one of a set of similar features for all the EU Member States, written in response to a questionnaire.

This feature outlines how national social partner organisations have been involved in Luxembourg's 2002 National Action Plan (NAP) on employment. Under the European employment strategy, each year the EU Member States draw up NAPs in response to the annual Employment Guidelines.

Similar features on social partner involvement in the 2002 NAPs have been drawn up by the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) national centres in all the EU Member States, in response to a questionnaire. Details on the background to this exercise, and the questionnaire used, can be found at TN0206102F. Readers are advised to refer to the questionnaire in conjunction with this feature.

Procedural aspects

The main forum for social partner involvement in drawing up the Luxembourg NAP is the Tripartite Coordinating Committee (Comité de coordination tripartite), set up by the law of 24 December 1977 (LU9711127F). This Committee is made up of four employers' representatives, four representatives of the most representative trade unions at national level, and representatives of the government. It plays an important role with regard to government measures to stimulate economic growth and maintain full employment. The Committee give opinions before decisions are taken on any such measures, after an examination of the overall economic and social situation and an analysis of the nature of unemployment. The Committee may also draw up its own proposals. The Committee is part of a system of negotiations and dialogue which over the last 60 years or so is regarded as having provided the basis for industrial peace, with social progress, social justice and respect for workers as the quid pro quo.

Following the launch of the European employment strategy at the European Council's 'jobs summit' in Luxembourg in December 1997 (EU), an orientation debate on employment policy was organised in the Chamber of Deputies (LU9711133N and LU9712134F). The government then decided to draw up an NAP together with the social partners. A 'concrete framework programme aimed at stimulating job creation' was thus drawn up and agreed under the auspices of the Tripartite Coordinating Committee over the course of five meetings (LU9805158F). According to the 2002 NAP, Luxembourg's 1998 Plan was the EU's only NAP to be based on an agreement between the government and social partners. Subsequent plans have also been drawn up by the Tripartite Coordinating Committee, with the 2002 NAP being issued on 11 April 2002. Social partner involvement in drawing up NAPs is thus very significant

Since the work of the Tripartite Coordinating Committee is conducted behind closed doors, and as it is not customary for the parties to comment on the various positions adopted, it is extremely hard to assess the level of the social partners' various inputs into the 2002 NAP. Therefore, it is only possible to say that a result has been reached, and that clearly this was feasible only because of a consensus between all the parties involved.

According to the 2002 NAP, in order to prepare for Tripartite Coordinating Committee meetings, the European employment strategy is regularly placed on the agenda of various other tripartite bodies, notably the Standing Committee on Employment (Comité permanent pour l'emploi). This body, chaired by the Minister of Labour, is also responsible for following up the employment-related decisions of the Tripartite Coordinating Committee.

Matters of policy content

Objective D of the 2002 Employment Guidelines call for a 'comprehensive partnership with the social partners for the implementation, monitoring and follow-up of the employment strategy'. As seen above, there is a high level of partnership in drawing up the NAP. This maintained in its follow-up, with the Tripartite Coordinating Committee and Standing Committee on Employment involved in this area, often with assistance from other tripartite bodies. For example, in 2002 the Tripartite Coordinating Committee, as well as drawing up the new NAP, analysed the results of previous NAPs (for instance, it found that measures adopted had helped increase the female employment rate from 43.8% in 1996 to 50.5% in 2000, and that the objective of an employment rate of 60% should be achieved by 2010). Furthermore, given that Luxembourg had one of the EU's lowest employment rates for the 55-64 age group (26.4% compared with an average of 37.1%), the parties have set up a tripartite working group, due to report in July 2002 on the measures to be adopted with a view to complying with the objectives in this area established by the Barcelona European Council in March 2002 (EU0203205F).

Since 1999, legislation adopted in the wake of the 1998 NAP has promoted collective bargaining among the social partners on many NAP-related issues (see below).

With Luxembourg's high level of employment and low level of unemployment (a rate of under 3% at present), it should be noted that labour market matters as such are not currently the most important topics on the social partners' agenda.

With regard to the social partners' assessment of the NAP and the government's overall employment policy, as mentioned above, the Luxembourg NAPs result from a tripartite consensus, and critical comments on the outcome are not customary.

Bargaining

The 2002 Employment Guidelines promote collective bargaining in the areas of:

• improving the quality of work and employment (in general);

• modernising work organisation (guideline 13);

• lifelong learning in the context of competence and skill development in enterprises (guideline 15);

• 'active ageing' (guideline 3);

• strengthening equal opportunities for men and women (tackling the gender pay gap, desegregating the labour market, reconciling work and family/private life etc) (guidelines 16,17 and 18); and

• social integration by way of better access to the labour market for groups and individuals at risk or at a disadvantage, such as people from ethnic minorities, migrant workers, long-term unemployed people and people with disabilities (guideline 7).

The law of 12 February 1999 on the implementation of the 1998 NAP (LU9903195F) sought to promote collective bargaining and agreements on these subject. This law amended existing legislation on collective agreements, with the effect that, since 1 March 1999, there is an obligation on the social partners to include in their bargaining many of the issues covered by the Employment Guidelines. This obligation to negotiate (though not to reach agreement) covers: flexible working methods aimed at making companies productive and competitive and achieving the necessary balance between flexibility and security; variable working time over reference periods; working time cuts; reducing overtime; the development of part-time work; career breaks; general training policy in the sector or company concerned; increasing training opportunities, notably for unemployed people; lifelong learning; and the implementation of the principle of equal treatment. The legislation also made it obligatory to reach agreements (rather than just negotiate) on ensuring access to company training measures for employees who are absent from work for reasons such as maternity or sabbatical leave.

However, given the relatively comprehensive nature of Luxembourg employment legislation, collective bargaining (at sector or, more commonly, company level) has traditionally focused on pay and related issues, other matters generally being regulated by law. This situation has been slow to change, with the main exception being an increasing level of bargaining on the issue of reorganisation of working time, which has been difficult in a complex legal environment that encourages the traditional eight-hour day and five-day week as the basis (LU9906108N).

The government has acted in Employment Guideline areas such as vocational training and the recruitment of hard-to-place employees, providing state subsidies and incentives. The social partners thus tend not to react energetically to the Guidelines but to wait for the state to take statutory initiatives, following talks in the various tripartite bodies, which are frequently backed up with financial incentives.

Since November 2001 (when the 2002 Employment Guidelines were sent to the Member States) there have been no collective agreements containing provisions based on the Guidelines.