Unions slam management’s inflexible approach at Villeroy & Boch

The ceramics manufacturer Villeroy & Boch has undergone two waves of restructuring in recent years. The first, in 2003, led to 150 redundancies. Then, in 2006, 179 workers were made redundant. Controversy has now arisen over negotiations on the renewal of the collective agreements for blue-collar and white-collar workers. The Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions has condemned the management’s intransigence.

Protracted negotiations

Negotiations for the renewal of the collective agreements for blue-collar and white-collar workers at the ceramics manufacturer Villeroy & Boch have lasted over six months. At the same time, the company management has requested the go-ahead for offering work without any form of job security in certain departments; in other words, the workers could be let go at any time. To this end, the management wanted to take on a number of former company employees who had been laid off as part of a restructuring phase at the beginning of 2006, but under fixed-term contracts. Moreover, some workers will be required to work on Sundays.

The Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Lëtzebuerger Chrëschtleche Gewerkschafts-Bond, LCGB) and the Luxembourg Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (Onofhängege Gewerkschaftsbond Lëtzebuerg, OGB-L) proposed a wage bonus for the workers who will have to work under the constant threat of losing their jobs at any time. However, this has been rejected by the management during the months-long negotiations.

Union claims agreement broken

In parallel with the problems in reaching agreement over the renewal of the collective agreement, LCGB has stated that Villeroy & Boch’s management has acted uncooperatively, in that the white-collar workers’ collective agreement, which was originally supposed to remain in force until 31 December 2006, is no longer being adhered to. LCGB points out that an agreement remains applicable until a new one has been signed. According to the trade union, the white-collar workers have received a letter informing them that the annual pay rises to which they are entitled would not be paid. LCGB has condemned this approach and called on the management for the immediate payment of the increases which are due.

Deteriorating climate

The trade unions note that the German company had 929 employees in Luxembourg in 1999 but now only has 304 workers in the country. At the time of the 2006 restructuring, they had already drawn attention to the fact that the company’s situation and labour relations climate have completely changed since a first phase of restructuring in 2003. The negotiations in relation to the redundancy scheme in 2006 were difficult and contentious; as a result, the National Conciliation Office was called on to intervene. The breakdown of dialogue at the time concerned job retention possibilities, training and the budget for the restructuring plans. In the end, the government provided €85,000 towards the company’s training fund (LU0703019I).

LCGB has now condemned the management’s intransigent and incomprehensible attitude to the collective agreement negotiations. It emphasises that it does not intend to take responsibility for Villeroy & Boch’s strategic decisions and that, all too often in the past, it has been over-conciliatory out of a desire to find solutions which are even remotely ‘reasonable’.

Temporary solution

For the time being, a temporary solution has been reached involving the prolongation of the expired collective agreements until the end of 2007. The interim agreement also involved the acceptance of the terms of working without any form of job security in two company departments up to the end of January 2008.

Odette Wlodarski, Prevent