Advice and Assistance

A dispute with your employer, a problem with social security, difficulty filling out your tax return? The advisors of the Information, Advice and Assistance Service – SICA are there to help you.

Find the SICA agencies

Advice

If it is a question of labor or pension and so of your economic well-being, you must receive the best possible advice in case of conflict. The experts of the OGBL advise you and defend you against your employer and the social security institutions.

Assistance

You are involved in a dispute with your employer. Your tax return is giving you a hard time. You have worked in different countries during your professional career. We are here to help you!

Legal assistance

This service concerns the defense of our members’ rights in relation to :

• labor law (problems with the employer – working time, leave, salary, warning, dismissal…)
• and social law (illness, disability, pension, parental leave, various social allowances…).

Members of the OGBL are entitled to free legal assistance including the reception and opening of a file, advice, necessary correspondence, possible lawyer’s fees, legal and procedural costs. In order to benefit from this service, for labor law cases it is necessary to be affiliated to the OGBL for at least 12 months. This waiting period is waived if the new member has fulfilled, prior to joining the OGBL, for more than 12 months the conditions with a national or foreign trade union affiliated to the European Trade Union Confederation – ETUC or the International Trade Union Confederation – ITUC. A certificate from the previous union is required.

It should not be overlooked that this service enables the OGBL not only to assist its affiliates in their individual cases, but also to keep an overview of a constantly changing social and labor law, to fight against abuses and illegalities committed by employers, to support victims of accidents at work or of problems with occupational medicine. Legal assistance therefore makes it possible to detect the thousand facets of a complex reality experienced by employees and pensioners and to transcribe them into social demands for all workers with the aim of building a fairer world of work.

Support for pensioners who make their contributions not only in Luxembourg

Many cross-border or foreign employees have worked in Luxembourg, but also in their country of residence or birth.

The employee generally contributes in the country in which he or she works. All periods of contribution in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland or a country with which Luxembourg has a bilateral agreement are taken into account for the purposes of entitlement and pension calculation.

The pension application must be submitted to the pension fund of the country of residence. This fund will make the link with the countries in which you have worked and paid contributions.

Each country will calculate the partial pension on the basis of national legislation and in proportion to the time worked.

As the old-age insurance schemes in the various countries provide for different retirement ages, the insured person will receive his partial pension until he has satisfied the age condition laid down in the legislation concerned.

Examples of retirement ages:

• Luxembourg, from the age of 65, if the conditions are met. Further information is available on the website of the National Pension Insurance Fund.
• Germany, for persons born before 1964 between the ages of 65 and 67, for persons born after 1964 from the age of 67. Further information is available on the website of the Deutsche Rentenversicherung.
• Belgium, from the age of 65 until 1.1.2025, from the age of 66 between 1.2.2025 and 1.1.2030 and from the age of 67 from 1.2.2030, if the conditions are met. Further information is available on the website of the National Pensions Office.
• France, for persons born before 1955 between the ages of 60 and 62, for persons born from 1955 onwards from the age of 62, if the conditions are met. Further information is available on the Pension Insurance website.
• Italy, from the age of 66 for men and from the age of 62 for women, if the conditions are met More information on the website of the Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale.
• Portugal, from the age of 66, if the conditions are met. More information on the website of the Centro Nacional Pensões.