3.8k Companies, 30k Employees Granted Partial Unemployment for December

Luxembourg's Economic Committee (Comité de conjoncture) met on Tuesday, 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, to discuss partial unemployment requests from companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In line with the newly introduced COVID-19 regulations in Luxembourg, the Government Council endorsed yesterday new conditions for the partial unemployment scheme. In this regard, eligible companies which have not yet submitted a request for partial unemployment for the month of November and / or December, may do so from 27 November until 4 December 2020 inclusive via the dedicated form on the MyGuichet.lu platform. Companies whose request is approved will then be able to benefit from partial unemployment at the rate of 100% of the total non-working hours during the period in which they are closed.

Affected companies which have already submitted a request for partial unemployment for the month(s) of November and / or December will not have to submit a new request. They may automatically benefit from partial unemployment at the rate of 100% of the total non-working hours during the period of closure.

With regard to catering trades, all employees directly employed at operating establishments forced to close due to COVID-19 measures are eligible for partial unemployment.

In addition, apprentices employed in businesses closed within the framework of the enforcement of legal provisions are exceptionally admitted to the partial unemployment scheme for the duration of the legal closure.

For the month of November 2020, 4,172 companies (up from 2,793 the previous month) submitted a request for partial unemployment for the month of December. After analysing the files submitted, the Economic Committee approved 3,809 requests (compared to 2,679 the previous month). The Government Council will make the final decision on the allocation of this support. The approved requests for the month of December concern 30,244 employees (in full-time jobs) compared to 22,075 employees the previous month.

The Economic Committee also analysed in more detail the economic, financial and social situation of four companies wishing to implement a job retention plan.

Finally, the Economic Committee approved four requests for tax exemption from voluntary severance pay, concerning 86 people, as well as three requests relating to the legal provisions on early retirement.

The next meeting is scheduled for 17 December 2020.