April 1998 saw continued negotiations, involving a conciliator, in Luxembourg's public sector pensions dispute. A proposed settlement drawn up by the conciliator drew a trade union counter-proposal, seeking a special fund to cover pension shortfalls, which the Government rejected.
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April 1998 saw continued negotiations, involving a conciliator, in Luxembourg's public sector pensions dispute. A proposed settlement drawn up by the conciliator drew a trade union counter-proposal, seeking a special fund to cover pension shortfalls, which the Government rejected.
Since mid-1997, public sector trade unions and the Government have been at loggerheads over the latter's proposal for reform of the civil service pension scheme (LU9706111F). Negotiations failed in January 1998 (LU9802146N) and the largest public sector union, the General Public Sector Confederation (Confédération Générale de la Fonction Publique, CGFP ) triggered a procedure that might ultimately lead to a strike. However, the parties were obliged to undergo a conciliation procedure before the president of the Tribunal d'Arrondissement (the civil court of first instance).
A series of meetings (LU9804154N) between the parties in the public sector and the conciliator continued on 2 April 1998, when the latter was able to get talks moving again with two proposals which both sides described as "worth looking at". These proposals, which have not been made public, contain components likely to lead to the introduction of a transitional scheme, which would affect certain "acquired" rights enjoyed by public servants currently in position.
In a surprising proposal, made on 10 April, the CGFP said that it was aware of possible pension funding problems looming around 2015-20, and accordingly was ready to forgo a certain proportion of future pay rises and pay the sums in question (estimated at LUF 139 million per year) into a jointly-managed fund. This fund would be used to rectify any budgetary crisis - in the event of public finances being in a healthy state, civil servants would not reclaim the contributions to the fund, but instead use them for charitable contributions.
The Government rejected these proposals at a further meeting on 29 April, on the grounds that they did not contain an acceptable solution to problems of future funding.
Negotiations are continuing on the basis of the conciliator's proposals.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (1998), Conciliation continues in public sector dispute, article.
