At its meeting of 18 March 2020, Luxembourg's Economic Committee announced new simplified measures for companies requesting partial unemployment linked to the coronavirus crisis.
The Economic Committee met on Wednesday in an extraordinary meeting under the co-chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy, Dan Kersch, and the Minister of Economy, Franz Fayot.
Given the magnitude of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) threat and the tangible repercussions on the lives of businesses and their employees, the Economic Committee unanimously validated recommended proposals and procedural steps developed jointly by the two ministries in question. From now on, there will be an accelerated procedure for companies directly affected by a government decision and a partial unemployment scheme for “force majeure / coronavirus”.
Regarding the first measure, companies which have had or still have to completely or partially stop their activities following a government decision, such as those referred to by the ministerial decree of 16 March 2020 or subsequent decisions, are exceptionally directly eligible for partial unemployment, from the effective date of the government decision that led to their total or partial closure.
An online system to request reimbursement of hours worked as part of partial unemployment for closure imposed by the government is under development and will be available in the coming days on the ADEM website. The companies concerned are invited to wait for this system to go online to submit their reimbursement request, which will be retroactive to 16 March 2020. A general public communication will be made as soon as the online system is operational.
ADEM will then endeavour, within the limits of its available human resources, to process these reimbursement requests as diligently as possible, taking into account the exceptional situation with which businesses and administrations are faced.
Advances may be paid on the basis of the actual payroll on the date on which the respective government decision takes effect. Reimbursement is limited to 80% of the normal salary capped at 250% of the minimum social salary for unskilled employees (i.e. €2,141.99 x 2.5). A monthly statement must be entered.
The reimbursement declarations will be subject to ex-ante control and false or fraudulent declarations may give rise to forced restitution without prejudice to legal proceedings.
Regarding the second measure, companies which remain open but which nevertheless suffer the negative impact of the coronavirus crisis on their business, can at any time submit a request for the grant of "force majeure / coronavirus" partial unemployment to the Secretariat of the Economic Committee at the Ministry of Economy. The form in question can be downloaded from adem.lu and from guichet.public.lu. Such requests received by Friday 20 March 2020 at 12:00 will be dealt with during the ordinary meeting of the Economic Committee scheduled for the morning of Monday 23 March 2020. During this meeting, requests for partial unemployment for cyclical or structural reasons will also be processed.
After the meeting, the companies will be informed in writing of the acceptance or rejection of their request.
Partial unemployment claims must be communicated to the staff representatives and, as far as possible, also bear their signature.
The partial unemployment scheme applies tomployees who are eligible for partial unemployment (i.e. persons with an open-ended or fixed-term employment contract legally employed by a company legally established in Luxembourg at the time of unemployment, able to work and aged under 68 and who do not benefit from a retirement pension old-age, early retirement pension or invalidity pension), who are normally employed at a workplace in Luxembourg and insured as employees with Luxembourg social security organisations. Temporary workers are therefore excluded.
However, apprentices are eligible; this decision is aimed at motivating companies to actively participate in dual system apprenticeships. People participating in employment measures are also eligible. Requests from an a.s.b.l. will be analysed on a case by case basis in order to avoid double financing. On the other hand, creches are in principle ineligible since the Ministry of National Education, Childhood and Youth continues to contribute to their operating costs at a rate of 70%.
