Minister of Labour, Dan Kersch;
Credit: © SIP / Yves Kortum
On Tuesday 14 April 2020, Luxembourg's Minister of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy, Dan Kersch, gave a 45-minute press conference on the effect the State of Emergency as a result of the COVIF-19 pandemic is having on the Luxembourg economy.
Minister Kersch revealed that more than the government has released €372 million in response to 9,933 companies submitting 14,728 requests for March and April, and that these payments will be in the bank accounts of the companies concerned tomorrow. With payments starting on 3 April, the government has allocated €400 million to support the liquidity of companies, with 370 requests currently pending. He also confirmed that 180,000 employees are affected by partial unemployment at present.
For March, for which these has been half a month of partial unemployment payments, €163 million was paid for 13,000 employees at 9,020 companies. The minister expects similar figures for April. He also revealed that the two economic sectors most affected by partial unemployment are construction and horesca.
Minister Kersch also mentioned that the ITM has carried out thousands of inspections, as a result of which there have been 19 cases where the police had to be called and sanctions imposed. He confirmed that where there has been fraud within companies, they have also notified the public prosecutor's office.
