A job protection plan is a combination of various instruments designed to adapt the workforce of businesses in difficulty while keeping employees in jobs.

It is used to manage the effects of planned restructuring in advance.

Within the framework of social dialogue, it must enable alternative solutions to be found so that employees threatened with redundancy are not faced with unemployment.

Who is concerned?

The job protection plan is aimed at businesses that are currently facing, or will soon have to face, economic difficulties.

Discussions regarding a job protection plan may be initiated by:

• either the social partners when they sense that economic or financial problems are likely to have a negative impact in terms of jobs;
• or the Economic Committee (Comité de conjoncture):
  • if it records more than 5 redundancies over a period of 3 months, or 8 redundancies over a period of 6 months;
  • or if financial or economic difficulties are expected.

Discussions concerning the job protection plan take place between the social partners, in other words:

• on one side:
  • the employer and/or;
  • an employers’ professional association;
• on the other side, depending on the case:
  • the employee committee;
  • the salary arm of the joint works council;
  • where applicable, the trade unions that have signed the collective agreement and the trade unions that are representative at a national or sector level.

What are the prerequisites?

The job protection plan is intended to help avoid redundancy plans. It is therefore desirable to start discussions concerning its application at an early stage, before a crisis situation arises.

In order to negotiate a job protection plan, the business must:

• be established in Luxembourg;
• hold, where applicable, a business permit granted by the competent authority.

How to proceed

Discussions on the job protection plan

Discussions concerning the job protection plan take place between the social partners within the business.

The party that initiated the discussions informs the secretariat of the Economic Committee when discussions have begun.

The discussions mainly concern the following instruments:

• job protection instruments within the business:
  • reduction in the number of temporary staff;
  • natural departures without replacements, including through the use of training for internal redeployment;
  • short-time working;
  • adjustments to working hours via:
    • a longer or shorter reference period;
    • voluntary part-time working;
    • the use of time savings accounts (compte épargne-temps);
  • participation in continuing training and/or retraining during inactive or freed-up working hours;
  • voluntary career breaks;
  • temporary loan of labour for a limited period;
  • early retirement for company restructuring;
• instruments for internal or intra-group restructuring:
  • reduction in the number of fixed-term employment contracts;
  • voluntary departures (including tax exemptions for voluntary departure or redundancy benefits under article 115.10);
  • retraining to allow redeployment within the business or to another business in the same business sector;
  • search for new jobs;
  • temporary loan of labour;
• external reassignment:
  • search for new jobs (profile analysis and contact with ADEM, businesses including suppliers and customers, professional networks and federations, out-placement agencies);
  • personalised support for career changes, if necessary using external experts;
  • retraining, where appropriate, with training fees subsidised by ADEM;
  • temporary loan of labour;
  • re-employment support;
  • recruitment aid for older workers;
  • voluntary departures (including tax exemptions for voluntary departure or redundancy benefits under article 115.10).

The job protection plan can involve one or more of these instruments, and can even include other elements not specifically listed. It provides a framework for establishing a structured approach to deal with the effects of restructuring on employment.

It must define a period of application as well as the principles and procedures governing its implementation and monitoring.

Approval and monitoring of the job protection plan

The social partners draw up the job protection plan in the form of a signed agreement approved at the appropriate levels.

If the business belongs to a sector covered by a collective agreement, the trade unions that represent this sector at national level must sign the job protection plan.

They must then send the plan to the secretariat of the Economic Committee.

If negotiations are successful, the plan must be communicated to the Economic Committee and approved by the Ministry of Labour and Employment so that the business can benefit from certain additional advantages.

The secretariat of the Economic Committee then provides support in terms of implementing and monitoring the job protection plan.