The LCGB trade union has announced that, following IBM Luxembourg's decision in early March 2021 to proceed with collective redundancies, the company's management had started negotiations for a social plan with the staff delegation supported by the LCGB.
However, faced with what the LCGB describes as the management's lack of will to work towards an acceptable solution, the National Conciliation Office (ONC) was engaged last Friday, 26 March 2021. A first meeting before the ONC has been set for Friday, 2 April 2021.
From the start of the negotiations, the LCGB has stated that the company's management refused any notion of a job retention plan as well as all voluntary measures (voluntary departure plan, early retirement-adjustment). While the compensation structure and the amounts proposed by management remain largely insufficient to compensate for the damage caused by the dismissal of employees, who have contributed for many years to the development and success of the company, according to the LCGB, no agreement has been reached to date.
The staff delegation, toegtehr with the LCGB, therefore consulted the staff on 23 March 2021 to jointly decide on the follow-up to the case. Despite what the LCGB described as an attempt to intimidate staff by management, an hour before this consultation, some 240 employees responded to the invitation and spoke out clearly against the employer's proposal.
The LCGB has stated that it deplores this unacceptable approach by management which, like an employer, claims to be "socially responsible" and clearly undermines social dialogue. Given this unconstructive approach by management on 24 March 2021, as described by the LCGB, at the end of the legal period of 15 days of negotiations, the parties parted without a social plan agreement.
The LCGB has stressed that IBM is not a company in financial difficulty. In 2020, IBM Global generated net operating income of $7.8 billion on sales of $73.2 billion. It has described the actions of IBM Luxembourg as a restructuring programme decided by IBM at the global level, above all, motivated by the "frantic search for profit to the detriment and without regard to employees".
