Nora Back and Patrick Dury, respective presidents of the OGBL and LCGB trade unions, declared they had “had enough” at a press briefing of the Union of Syndicates on Friday morning. They accused the government of making important decisions on minimum wage without consulting the unions, confirming the morning’s “Lëtzebuerger Land” report that there will be no structural minimum wage increase. Back said they were “ready to fight” like last summer, and pointed out that the new labour minister Marc Spautz had spent 100 days in the role without anything happening.
The minimum wage is automatically adjusted every two years. But now the government is trying to say that this automatic adjustment and the next two index tranches would be enough, the unions complained. Today, the minimum wage is 48% of the median wage, yet an EU directive says that this threshold should be 60%. “Selling this as a minimum wage increase is a joke,” said Back.
The Union of Syndicates therefore requested an emergency meeting with the Prime Minister on Friday morning. Dury said that there are no longer three partners at the table, but instead the union of the OGBL and the LCGB versus the union of government and employers. He said it was no longer possible to negotiate in this manner.
In addition, the unions agreed the evolution of unemployment was a matter of concern, requiring urgent discussion by the Economic Committee and possibly even within the framework of a tripartite meeting.
