Newsletter - Bill transposing Directive 2018/957 on the posting of workers

On 23 January 2020, the Government submitted to the Chamber of Deputies a bill nr. 7516 (the "Bill") transposing the Directive adopted on 28 June 2018 by the European Parliament and the Council, which aims at revising the 1996 Directive on the posting of workers.

The transposition of the Directive was due to take place by 30 January 2020 at the latest.

The 2018 Directive extends the core of mandatory rules which will need to be complied with by companies posting employees on the territory of other Member States to (i) the health, hygiene and safety conditions of the accommodation offered by the employer to posted workers and (ii) the allowances and/or reimbursements of their expenses to cover their travel, accommodation and food costs.

The Bill fully integrates these new elements (albeit with certain clarifications) which shall apply to employees seconded to Luxembourg, and adds the following new measures designed to further ensure the protection of posted workers:

  • the notion of a national minimum social wage should henceforth be understood as including all elements of remuneration that are compulsory by virtue of legal, regulatory or contractual provisions;
  • the obligations imposed on principals and clients established in Luxembourg will be reinforced, as they will be obliged to declare the posting of workers to the Labor and Mines Inspectorate ("ITM") when the seconding company has failed to do so, as well as to enjoin that their contracting party remedies any accommodation that will not comply with national criteria;
  • a temporal limit will be introduced: for any posting of a duration of more than 12 months, if the employer fails to send the ITM a motivated request to be allowed to increase the duration of the posting of employees to 18 months, the employee will benefit from all the provisions of Luxembourg labour law (with some exceptions listed by the Bill);
  • new resources will be allocated to the detection of illegal work, in particular by strengthening cooperation between Member States;
  • a national digital platform will be set up to make information on applicable work and employment conditions available to posted employees.

Finally, the Bill also clarifies the scope of the provisions it transposes by expressly including the posting of temporary workers and excluding the road transportation sector.

As the Bill has only just been submitted, it is likely that it will be amended in the course of the parliamentary work.

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