Luxembourg's Inspection du travail et des mines (Labour and Mining Inspectorate) has confirmed that this year's congé collectif (collective leave) for the construction sector will take place between Monday 5 August and Sunday 25 August 2019.
Employees of Luxembourg or foreign construction and civil engineering companies, as well as sanitary installation, heating and air-conditioning contractors working in Luxembourg are all affected: for them, the collective labour agreement sets the terms and conditions applicable to compulsory collective leave.
Some works may give rise to a derogation, including maintenance or repair. Exemption from collective leave is only possible with the agreement of both the staff delegation and the employees concerned.
For the Building and Civil Engineering sector, Appendix V of the collective labour agreement sets out the terms and conditions applicable to the compulsory collective leave. For the summer of 2019, the last day of work will be Thursday 25 July 2019 and the resumption of work will take place on Monday 19 August 2019. Here, some works may give rise to a derogation, for example in schools, factories during the cessation of production or urgent work. The ad hoc Committee alone has the power to grant derogations.
For the collective summer break in 2019, requests for a total of 101 companies concerning 196 sites were handled by the commission: 47 construction projects in schools, 42 in factories during the shutdown and another 107 urgent projects (196 in total).
The companies benefiting from a derogation have received an authorisation which must be displayed visibly on the 129 sites. 16 applications were refused and 51 requests for derogation were related to works and sites not subject to the collective leave and which did not therefore require an agreement from the commission.
Inspections undertaken by the ITM, the Customs and Excise Administration and the Grand Ducal Police will take place over the summer; these supervisory authorities may at any time stop the work of companies that do not have a valid authorisation.
