Following Georges Mischo’s resignation as Labour and Sports Minister, the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL) and the Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (LCGB) have given their first reactions to the appointment of Marc Spautz as Luxembourg’s new Labour Minister.
While unions broadly welcome the change, employers remain largely unfazed, insisting their priorities will stay the same.
OGBL president Nora Back made clear that the issue for her union is not personal affinity but political action. She noted that Spautz has, over the past two years, often taken positions closer to those of the trade unions than to those of his own party or the wider government. This track record, she said, offers at least some hope that the social dialogue, badly strained in recent months, might be revived. Still, Back stressed that what matters now is how he handles each issue, not whether unions “like” him.
LCGB president Patrick Dury, who previously worked under Spautz when he was the union’s secretary general, echoed that sentiment. He said Spautz knows the trade union landscape, the employers, and labour law extremely well, and that the LCGB expects a far more constructive approach from him than under his predecessor.
However, Dury insisted there would be no automatic return to the Permanent Committee on Labour and Employment, as several conditions would need to be met before unions rejoin the table. He listed a series of priority issues, including minimum wage reform, working time organisation, digitalisation, and artificial intelligence, arguing that Luxembourg had lost a great deal of time and needed rapid progress.
Back, meanwhile, did not hide that the OGBL had “serious difficulties” working with Mischo. She criticised what she called his repeated misunderstandings of the indexation system, his confrontational stance towards unions and his willingness to undermine key protections in labour law.
While Back acknowledged that Mischo’s resignation was undoubtedly personally difficult for him, she maintained that OGBL did not consider the decision to replace him “wrong”. Still, she emphasised that unions will only be satisfied once new legislation is delivered that genuinely serves working people.
She also pointed out that Spautz, as a former trade unionist himself, now finds himself in a politically delicate position, working within a coalition whose programme is not particularly favourable to their agenda, and facing an employers’ union (UEL) which, she noted, is adopting increasingly hardline positions.
Employers, for their part, reacted with little emotion to the changeover. Michel Reckinger, president of the Luxembourg Employers’ Association (UEL), said employers’ priorities remain identical: modern labour law adapted to today’s economy. He explained that the UEL had already submitted detailed proposals to Mischo and would do the same with Spautz. Reckinger stressed that labour law still reflects the last century and must be updated to reflect the way people work today.
Carlo Thelen, director of the Chamber of Commerce, struck a similar tone. He said that they do not evaluate the individual minister’s performance, but that of the entire government and all social partners. Luxembourg, he insisted, needs to move quickly in the coming months to modernise its labour market so that companies can remain competitive in uncertain times.
The ministerial reshuffle, then, leaves both camps with expectations: the unions are hoping for a re-energised social dialogue, and the employers want labour law modernisation to advance without delay.
