Luxembourg’s infection rates are still high, resulting in a great number of employees who are unable to work due to Covid illness, contact, or parental leave to care for children in quarantine.
Although companies have adjusted well to the CovidCheck 3G requirements in the workplace, the high number of infections are causing all manner of staffing issues, according to the federation of artisans, and the entrepreneurs association. Fédération des Artisans chief Romain Schmit said the procedures for requesting assistance such as partial unemployment were particularly rigid, affecting businesses who were unable to predict the impact of the Omicron wave.
Schmit explained that businesses such as hairdressers and beauty salons had been unable to submit the partial unemployment requests in time when Omicron struck in December, and were now feeling the brunt of staff absences.
Similar issues are cropping up in the construction sector. In addition to material shortages and delivery delays, staff shortages are also driving up prices, according to Pol Faber of the “Groupement des entrepreneurs”. He told RTL around 6-7% of staff were currently signed off with Covid, while around 3-4% were unable to work for Covid-related reasons such as quarantine or parental leave. The high absences could lead to delays of multiple weeks on numerous construction projects, which are already behind due to other issues plaguing the sector.
The artisan federation has appealed to the government to lift all Covid restrictions in line with other countries, in order to re-balance the books.
RTL spoke to two of Luxembourg’s biggest employers about the repercussions of the Omicron wave on their businesses, as well as the 3G CovidCheck system.
Post director Claude Strasser said the communications company was dealing with a number of Covid absences, but not all its services were affected equally. The absences were not equally distributed across Post’s departments, with services such as mail distribution suffering acutely from a lack of staff. Strasser said the last week in particular had seen a real shortage in post office workers.
Post had also experienced shortages of staff members responsible for customer installations, but in general it had been able to maintain services. For the post office department, the situation was somewhat more stable than at the start of the pandemic, Strasser concluded.
Alessandra Nonnweiler, spokesperson for CFL, offered more positive analysis. Although the situation on Luxembourg’s railways required daily assessment, she explained operations had been unfolding as required, due to forward planning with regard to staff and potential absence. Generally, trains have been running normally across the country. CFL had prioritised staff required to keep the service going, such as train drivers and conductors, but also maintenance and back office staff.
Both CFL and Post managed to implement the 3G regime - both said it was an administrative hassle at first, but has now become routine.
