Conference on implementing NAP through bargaining

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In May 1999, a national conference brought together all those involved in drawing up collective agreements in Luxembourg, with the aim of examining the opportunities for implementing the Grand-Duchy's National Action Plan for employment through bargaining.

A meeting of the Tripartite Coordination Committee (Comité de coordination tripartite) was held on 3 May 1999. The atmosphere was tense following the Mayday declarations of the OGB-L and LCGB trade union confederations, which fiercely criticised employers for allegedly failing to fulfil undertakings made during tripartite meetings preparing Luxembourg's National Action Plan for employment (LU9903197F).

The Minister of Labour, while acknowledging that the social partners were prepared to abide by their signed commitments, stated that the concrete implementation of certain components of the NAP through collective agreements had not taken place in some sectors of the economy. Thus, in order to identify the practical opportunities that the Plan offers for implementation via agreements, the government called a national conference for all those involved in drawing up and negotiating collective agreements on 31 May 1999.

At the conference, which was attended by over 200 people, trade union negotiators accused employers of preferring individual company collective agreements to sectoral agreements over the past few years, thus triggering a fundamental socio-political change by departing from guidelines laid down at national level.