THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

What is the short-time work?

Short-time working allows a company to avoid laying off its employees. The employees receive 80% of their salary from the company (this amount cannot be less than the minimum social wage or more than 250% of the minimum social wage). These amounts are fully covered by the Employment Fund.

Conditions that the company must complete

Eligible employees: permanent, fixed-term, apprenticeship, etc.

– be legally established in Luxembourg

– a significant go down on activities/income following the crisis

– undertake not to dismiss any employee for economic reasons

In order to maintain employment and, consequently, avoid redundancies, Luxembourg labour law provides that firms may, under certain conditions, have recourse to different short-time working schemes, depending on the nature of the difficulties encountered. This system enables firms to keep their trained employees in employment with skills that are essential to the smooth running of their activities.

The short-time working scheme is therefore one of the major instruments enabling enterprises to cope with the fall in economic activity due to the Covid-19 health crisis.

In view of the current exceptional situation and the repercussions on the life of companies and their employees, the conditions for applying for and obtaining short-time working have been adjusted.

In order to speed up and facilitate the procedure for applying for short-time working in cases of force majeure linked to the Covid-19 crisis, ADEM, in close collaboration with the Secretariat of the Economic Conditions Committee and the State Information Technology Centre (CTIE), has set up a new automated system that enables companies to submit their short-time working applications via an online form at: http://guichet.lu/cocp

This request will have to be made every month

Companies make their request using secure authentication (LuxTrust product (e.g. Token, Smartcard or Signing stick) or electronic identity card). They also have the possibility of having their application submitted by their authorised representative (a trustee), e.g. if they do not have a LuxTrust product. The data collected will be processed automatically by ADEM. The application has been designed to be as simple as possible for companies. As of today, companies must use the form available at the Counter to make their request (requests by mail, e-mail or fax will no longer be accepted).

Applications from companies that can no longer operate following the government decisions of March 2020 will be processed directly by ADEM. Applications from other companies will only be processed after the agreement of the Comité de conjoncture. In both cases and as soon as the request is accepted, ADEM will pay an advance to the companies. This advance corresponds to 80% of the salaries of the staff affected by short-time working and will enable the firms to obtain cash quickly. After the end of the month, the company will be required to submit a detailed statement showing the hours actually worked. On the basis of this statement, ADEM will calculate the sums actually owed by the Employment Fund. In the event of an overpayment, the company will be required to reimburse it.

Which companies are eligible for the new partial unemployment scheme linked to COVID-19?

Companies that can no longer carry out their activities following a government decision are automatically eligible for short-time working without the need for the agreement of the economic conditions committee.

All other companies that have to suffer a drop in activity due to the coronavirus crisis must receive the agreement of the economic development committee in order to be eligible for short-time work.

Temporary employment agencies are also eligible with regard to their employees whose assignment contract continues but who can no longer carry out their activity.

Both types of companies must apply using the same form at the counter.

Which employees are eligible for the new partial unemployment scheme linked to COVID-19?

• Employees on permanent and fixed-term contracts (the contracts must be in force at the time of the occurrence of the force majeure event)
• Apprentices in initial and adult learning.

What about companies that have already applied on the basis of the old form?

The applications received by the secretariat of the economic development committee by post, email or fax are being processed. Given the extremely large number of applications received, this processing could take until 3 April 2020.  Companies whose application was incomplete and therefore cannot be processed will be contacted by ADEM.

Link: http://guichet.lu/cocp

Source: ADEM

Attached files: 200327_DemandeDeChomagePartiel.pdf

From the Chamber, we want to be with our members and strengthen all our actions and activities, to give an answer to the companies and the self-employed to react to the situation that we are currently facing.

For this reason, the Chamber will periodically publish all the legal, administrative or new measures that are being produced and taken in Luxembourg to inform our members and facilitate the updated information that could be useful for them.

Here you can find the latest economic and social measures for companies in Luxembourg due to Covid-19.