Minister of Labour hopes to "resume social dialogue"

"The Minister of Labour's idea of social dialogue is completely out of step with reality," lamented The Left MP Marc Baum on Wednesday. His comments followed the labour committee meeting, attended by minister Georges Mischo at The Left's request, in order to provide explanations for an altercation with the trade unions last week.

Unions exited talks

The purpose of last week's meeting of the Standing Committee on Labour and Employment (CPTE) was to discuss an action plan in favour of collective agreements, necessary for the transposition of a European directive. The unions hoped to obtain a promise from Mischo that they could retain exclusivity in collective contract negotiations in the future; however, the minister was unprepared to deliver that promise.

Mischo said he had no intentions that would go against employees' interests:

"I do not want to weaken salaries and collective agreements in any way. I simply wanted to start a discussion on things at the CPTE. But that was not possible at the time. I hope that this is now understood and that we can resume social dialogue."

Mischo's predecessor as head of the Ministry of Labour, the current LSAP MP Georges Engel, said he understood that the trade union representatives had walked out of the CPTE meeting. He added there could be a risk that something important to the unions in terms of social dialogue could be taken away:

"If [the minister] had not wanted to take anything away from the unions, he could have told them clearly that collective agreements will be negotiated with the unions and no one else. But he did not do so. I question his way of saying he favours social dialogue. There is a world of difference between words and actions."

Baum said that social dialogue should not be reduced to empty words.

"Social dialogue is just the Luxembourg model, based on social peace, on the fact we have relatively few labour strikes, because we have these mechanisms in place to tackle disagreements as early as possible. If this is now called into question, things could explode in Luxembourg."

The Minister of Labour assured members of the parliamentary committee that he hoped to bring the unions back together as soon as possible for further meetings. He also promised to supply the committee with the action plan in question.