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Luxembourg's Ministry of Education, Children and Youth issued today a statement in response to recent discussions relating to the tasks of psychosocial and educational staff in secondary schools, competence centres and regional directorates.

The Ministry recalled that by virtue of the principle of non-retroactivity, the contractual situation of all persons currently in service remains unchanged; working conditions can only be changed by mutual agreement between the parties concerned and the respective departments.

 

Moreover, the current process was initiated by mutual agreement with the trade unions and aimed at a harmonisation of tasks and a coherent framework in the different sectors of national education. The Ministry added that it was "never [its] intention" to carry out a fundamental reform of the tasks of psychosocial and educational staff or to reduce them when faced with an unprecedented economic and health situation.

In compliance with the legal framework on the general status of civil servants, the agents to be recruited may be offered two types of tasks:

- a weekly task of 40 hours and 32 days of recess, with the possibility of funding the time savings account;
- a weekly task of 44 hours during school term (40 hours with the obligation to fund the time savings account at the rate of four hours per week for 36 weeks) and 50 days of recess.

After consulting with stakeholders in the school community, the Ministry observed that the two models in question already reflect the reality on the ground.

Depending on the missions to be accomplished in the interest of students, the directors will offer agents to be recruited from September 2020 one of these two roles. In particular, directors can be guided in their choice by the question of whether a service should be provided during school holidays.

The Ministry concluded that agents currently in service are not affected by the current discussions and that it remains open to discussion concerning the modalities of the implementation of these two types of task with regard to recruitment of new agents. The Ministry also suggested that the unions continue discussions in the coming weeks.