D1b1 - In what circumstances is recourse to a fixed-term employment contract (CDD) permitted?

Recourse to fixed-term employment contracts (contrat de travail à durée déterminée - CDD) is strictly limited by law and they can therefore be concluded only in certain circumstances.

CDDs may not in any circumstances be concluded to fill on an ongoing basis a post linked with the normal and permanent business of the undertaking.

A CDD may be concluded only for the performance of a specific task which is not permanent.

A non-exhaustive list of specific and not permanent tasks justifying the conclusion of a CDD is given below:

  • replacement of a temporarily absent employee;
  • replacement of an employee whose employment contract has been suspended for reasons other than a collective employment dispute or the lack of work deriving from economic causes or bad weather;
  • the replacement of an employee with a CDI whose post has become vacant, pending the entry into service of the employee who is to replace the one whose contract has expired;
  • employment of a seasonal nature;

Examples

  • crop picking and harvesting;
  • activities relating to leisure, holidays and activities involving the supervision and maintenance of campsites and open-air swimming pools.
  • posts for which, in certain sectors of activity, it is constant practice not to use CDIs; the list of those sectors and posts was laid down by the Grand-Ducal Regulation of 11 July 1989.

Examples

  • in the audiovisual sector;
  • in the banking sector:  special private banking skills, investment advisers and portfolio managers, specialists responsible for swaps, options, futures and forward contract rate agreements, specialists responsible for acquisitions and mergers, project financing and risk capital;
  • in professional sport;
  • in the fashion-modelling industry, etc.
  • the execution of an occasional and one-off specific task not falling within the scope of the undertaking’s ordinary business;
  • the performance of a specific and non-permanent task in the event of a temporary and exceptional increase in the activity of the undertaking or in the event of start-up or expansion of the undertaking;
  • the execution of urgent work made necessary to prevent accidents, to remedy inadequacies of equipment and to organise salvage measures;
  • the employment of an unemployed person registered with the Employment agency (ADEM);
  • a post designed to promote the recruitment of certain categories of job-seekers; and
  • a post for which the employer undertakes to provide the employee with additional vocational training.

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