“The tripartite agreement of March was signed under the conditions of the time. In our view, it was the best agreement possible at that time,” LCGB President Patrick Dury stated on Tuesday morning in an interview with our colleagues from RTL Radio.
Dury recalls that this agreement also stipulated that the tripartite should reconvene if a new wage indexation were to be triggered this year. The LCGB President stressed that this was included in the agreement at the trade unions’ request and that it will be respected.
Although the possibility of additional wage indexations had already been discussed in the spring, no possible solution had yet been worked out. The aim is to discuss this in a tripartite meeting, which was not possible to achieve in advance.
Dury declined to comment on whether the next wage indexations would be spread out over several years by being postponed repeatedly or if it would be possible to pay two or more indexations simultaneously. He explained that the trade unions did not want to “conduct negotiations through the press”.
For the LCGB it is clear, however, that the index must remain in its entirety.
The LCGB wants to assess the situation with the government on Thursday. With a potential tripartite meeting in mind, the government will hold individual meetings with the employers and trade unions.
Securing jobs and purchasing power is at the top of the trade union’s agenda. Dury stressed that the LCGB supports the wage indexation system. The July indexation had been postponed to April 2023 and replaced by a tax credit in accordance with the salary. According to Dury, this is “a solution in times of crisis”. But this measure should not be seen as an opportunity to stagger the index. On the other hand, Dury also made it clear that he thinks social measures and redistribution should be done through fiscal policy rather than through the wage indexation system. The latter is important to maintain purchasing power in the event of inflation, especially for people who do not have a collective agreement, Dury stressed.
Prior to the Thursday bilateral talks with the government, the LCGB will also have meetings with the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL) and the General Confederation of the Civil Service (CGFP). The trade unions intend to reach a three-way agreement with the government. According to Dury, this is “the spirit” in which the trade unions will take part in the discussion. The trade union president once again regretted that no agreement could be achieved between the three sides during the most recent tripartite conference at the end of March.
