Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has announced that 4,393 companies have applied to the government (with 4,243 successful in respect of 34,117 employees) for partial (un)employment for February 2021.

The Conjuncture Committee met on Tuesday 26 January 2021 under the co-chairmanship of the Minister of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy, Dan Kersch, and the Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot.

1. Partial unemployment claims for businesses closed due to an administrative decision

The meeting agreed that companies forced to keep their doors closed due to an administrative decision may, exceptionally, benefit from an extension of the deadline for submitting a request for partial unemployment for the month of February 2021.

To this end, the companies concerned, which have not yet submitted a request for partial unemployment for the month of February, may, until 1 February 2021 inclusive, make a request using the specific "partial unemployment lockdown" form available on the MyGuichet.lu platform and will be able to benefit from partial unemployment at the rate of 100% of the total non-working hours during the closing period.

Companies affected which have already submitted a request for partial unemployment granted for the month of February will not have to submit a new request. They will be able to benefit from partial unemployment at the rate of 100% of the total hours not worked during the period of closure.

As a result of this extension, the period for submitting requests for partial unemployment for March is set from 2 February to 12 February 2021 inclusive.

2. For the month of February 2021, 4,393 companies (against 4,212 in the previous month) having submitted a request for granting partial unemployment in order to be able to benefit for the month of February from the special provisions which are in force until 30 June 2021 due to the COVID-19 crisis.

After analysing the files submitted, the Committee ruled favourably on 4,243 requests (against 3,896 in the previous month), the final decision on the allocation of this support falling to the Governing Council.

The positively notified requests for the month of February concern 34,117 employees (calculation in FTE / full-time jobs) compared to 32,180 employees (calculation in FTE) for the previous month.

In addition, the Committee issued a positive opinion on 2 requests for tax exemption from voluntary termination indemnities, in application of article 115 (10) L.I.R. These requests concern 5 people.

Finally, the Committee issued a positive opinion on 1 request in relation to the legal provisions on early retirement.