The Economic Committee, which met on Tuesday under the chairmanship of the Ministers of Economy and Labour, Franz Fayot and Georges Engel, approved 89 applications for short-time working. As a result, around 8,900 employees in Luxembourg will be on this type of contract in January.
Short-time working is when the hours of employees are cut for a limited period of time. This allows firms experiencing economic difficulties to keep employees onboard while lowering costs, with government support helping pay some of the hours not worked.
In December, about 9,200 employees were on short-time work. The majority of the approved applications were submitted for cyclical reasons. A dozen applications were also submitted for structural reasons, i.e. because there is an employment maintenance plan in the companies concerned.
