Insurance sector negotiations heading for conciliation

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In December 1998, the social partners in Luxembourg's insurance sector finally gave up their efforts to reach an agreement on the principle of introducing performance-linked pay into the sector's collective agreement. The National Conciliation Office has been notified.

Trade unions and employers have been trying to agree on a renewal of the collective agreement in Luxembourg's insurance sector for almost two years (LU9710124N). A final meeting on 13 December 1998 ended in failure.

The Association of Insurance Companies (Association des compagnies d'assurance, ACA) wants to introduce a performance-based pay system and to reduce the importance of the current scheme, based on automatic pay rises linked to a fixed scale. Employers take the view that automatic pay increases should be reduced by half, and subsequent increases should be earned only through a system of performance assessment.

One of the representative trade unions in the sector - the Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Lëtzebuerger Chrëschtleche Gewerkschafts-Bond, LCGB) - believes that the employers' position is now limited to seeking a trade union "yes" or "no" to its proposed new system, and that "any new talks are out of the question. As it cannot" accept the proposed system, LCGB has referred the matter to the National Conciliation Office (Office National de Conciliation), while stressing that it is not rejecting the idea of introducing performance as a key element in determining employees' pay in certain circumstances. The Office's job is to resolve collective disputes through seeking an agreement between the parties.

The ACA has also called on the National Conciliation Office, and the latter body will be bringing the parties together for talks in the next few months.