Unions refer CSC Computer Sciences dispute to conciliation

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In late 2000, Luxembourg trade unions claimed that the senior management of CSC Computer Sciences Belgique had rejected the terms of a new collective agreement negotiated by unions and local management in Luxembourg. The unions thus referred the matter to the National Conciliation Office.

In May 1997, DuPont de Nemours, the USA-based chemicals group, transferred its data-processing staff in Luxembourg to CSC Computer Sciences Luxembourg SA, a company owned by CSC Computer Belgique SA, which employs 460 people in Belgium and Luxembourg, and is part of the USA-based Computer Sciences Corporation, which employs about 60,000 people at 800 sites worldwide.

One of the conditions negotiated at the time of the transfer provided that the DuPont de Nemours collective agreement should in principle remain applicable to the employees concerned (except managerial and professional staff), particularly in view of the fact that the workers continued to perform their duties on DuPont's premises. An initial addition to the existing agreement signed on 19 June 2000, and retrospectively covering the period from 12 May 1998 to 31 May 2000, was still based on the Dupont de Nemours collective agreement, but stated that the DuPont profit-sharing scheme would be withdrawn for the transferred staff and replaced by a CSC bonus scheme starting in 2001.

In July 2000, the signatory trade unions, the Luxembourg Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (Onofhängege Gewerkschafts-Bond Lëtzebuerg, OGB-L) and the Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Lëtzebuerger Chrëschtleche Gewerkschafts-Bond, LCGB) opened negotiations with a view to renewing the collective agreement for CSC staff. According to a press release put out jointly by the two unions, the talks went well and after five meetings the parties settled on an agreement to be put to staff for their approval. However, the unions claim that just when the agreement was about to be signed, CSC Luxembourg management refused to honour its commitments.

At the end of December 2000, LCGB was informed that the Belgium and Luxembourg senior management of the company would not agree to an across-the-board monthly pay rise of LUF 2,044 and would oppose the introduction of a 39-hour week, despite the fact that these matters had been agreed by the company's negotiators, according to the trade unions, and had been set out in an amendment to the existing agreement ready for signature. LCGB and OGB-L, together with CSC staff, felt that it was therefore impossible to continue negotiations with management representatives who clearly had no mandate to commit the enterprise to a collective agreement. They thus referred the matter to the National Conciliation Office (Office National de Conciliation), while reserving the right to take industrial action, if necessary.