The employer is required to observe the scales of remuneration laid down in certain collective work agreements.
A collective agreement is a contract relating to working relations and conditions. It facilitates the identification of a legal framework which is to apply uniformly to the employees in the sector of activity concerned. A collective agreement may be concluded between one or more trade union organisations of employees fulfilling the legal conditions, and:
- one or more employers’ professional organisations;
- a specific undertaking;
- a group of undertakings.
Any collective agreement may be declared to constitute a general obligation. It thereupon becomes binding on all employers and employees in the profession, activity, branch or economic sector concerned.
A declaration of general obligation may be triggered at the request of a professional employers’ organisation in the sector concerned or by a trade union enjoying general national representativity or representativity in a particularly important sector of the Luxembourg economy, which must then forward its application to the Minister of Labour, Employment, and the Social and Solidarity Economy.
The declaration of general obligation is issued in the form of a Grand-Ducal Regulation published in the Mémorial (Official Gazette).