In the trade and garages sector – a sector where the coverage rate of collective labor agreements is among the lowest in Luxembourg – more than 1,000 additional employees have benefited from a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in the space of two years. In the last two years, the OGBL has negotiated a whole series of new collective agreements and has also been able to extend the scope of the collective agreement for garages.

In the last two years, new collective agreements have been signed mainly in the fashion sector. Although the first collective agreements were implemented mainly in the multinational fashion companies such as H&M, Inditex or C&A, more and more smaller companies follow in their footsteps. In recent times, collective agreements have been signed in companies with twenty or less employees.

Thanks to the work of the OGBL in the trade and garage sector, a total of more than 15,000 employees are now covered by a CBA and thus benefit from more favourable working conditions than those provided for by law.

The Commerce Syndicate will, of course, continue to improve working conditions in the sector through an offensive salary policy aimed at increasing the coverage of collective agreements.

However, there are limits to this: the vast majority of companies in the retail sector have fewer than 15 employees. In terms of resources, it is almost impossible to negotiate so many collective agreements in hundreds of small companies. That is why the OGBL’s Commerce Syndicate is calling for a sectoral collective agreement for small businesses.

The CLC (Luxembourg Trade Confederation – Confédération Luxembourgeoise du Commerce), which represents employers in the sector, categorically refuses that such a sectoral collective agreement should be negotiated, arguing that it would not be in the interests of businesses to do so. Recent agreements and the fact that a number of small businesses have negotiated and signed collective agreements prove otherwise!

The OGBL syndicate continues to demand the introduction of a sectoral collective agreement for employees in small businesses. In this context it also calls on the Minister of Labor to finally undertake a reform of the law on collective agreements, in particular to promote the negotiation of sectoral collective agreements – a reform to which the government committed itself in its coalition agreement and which the OGBL has been demanding for several years already.

At the same time, the Commerce Syndicate is, of course, continuing to negotiate new collective agreements at company level, thereby improving working conditions and wages in the sector.

Press release of the OGBL Commerce Syndicate, February 6, 2023