The Chamber of Employees (Chambre des Salariés - CSL) has issued a statement in which it rejected the proposal to extend Sunday working hours in Luxembourg.
The CSL noted that its plenary assembly unanimously adopted its opinion on the draft law on Sunday working time on 14 November 2024. The CSL rejected this draft law, which it said was drafted "without respect for social dialogue and without respect for the employees concerned", arguing that it will harm working conditions and pay.
The CSL recalled that the proposed bill constitutes the implementation of the government coalition agreement in the retail sector, which had announced a reform of the Labour Code "in order to allow employees to work up to eight hours on Sundays while maintaining the salary increase for all hours worked".
The CSL acknowledged that working on Sundays is essential for certain sectors, but argued that this was not the case for the retail sector, where wages are "already very low" and "many employees want to spend their Sundays together with their families". It also described Sunday work as "detrimental to the work-life balance", adding that it should be negotiated within the framework of collective labour agreements, "with unions as safeguards and with the aim of protecting the interests of the employees concerned".
Thus regulated, Sunday work is "neither trivialised by employers nor endured by employees in the sector, but chosen with full knowledge of the facts and compensated by significant increases", the CSL said. It argued that the draft law "represents quite the opposite", allowing employers to demand that employees automatically work eight hours on Sundays "without compensation other than that provided for by law and without having to negotiate a collective agreement". According to the CSL, this not only "paves the way" for a possible liberalisation of opening hours, but also "considerably weakens" collective labour agreements in a sector that has a low coverage rate (38% according to the latest figures).
The CSL argued that the proposal thus contradicts the Minister of Labour's "alleged desire" to increase collective agreements and the obligation to increase the coverage rate of collective agreements as provided for in the European directive on adequate minimum wages.
The CSL also expressed its concern that Sundays would no longer be a special day, but "a day like any other". The next step could be to question the increase in Sunday pay, it said. The CSL later added that the proposal fails to mention the "many problems associated with Sunday work that will be intensified", for example for single mothers working in the retail sector, nor does it mention "the competitive disadvantages that small businesses will face compared to large retail outlets", among other issues.
The CSL stressed that should the draft law be adopted, this would require a review of the overall legal framework "to better protect employees". It added that the issue of Sunday work "should be the focus of a global discussion on all elements affecting the organisation of working time".
