Senior executives in the banking and other financial industries are exempted from benefiting from the collective agreement applicable to these industries. Union representatives challenged the practice of employing so-called 'fake' senior executives and on December 22 2016 a parliamentary question on this matter was submitted to Minister for Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy Nicolas Schmit and Minister for Finance Pierre Gramegna. The ministers issued a joint response to this question on February 7 2017.
In the response, Schmit confirmed that he had been informed of this practice by union representatives, without knowing of any actual cases in which workers were systematically employed as senior executives in order to circumvent the provisions of the applicable collective agreement. Schmit and Gramegna responded that, at that time, they had been unable to comment on the unions' statements regarding the practice of employing fake senior executives. However, the reponse confirms that Schmit will raise the issue during an upcoming meeting with representatives from the banking and other financial industries.
The ministerial response also clarifies details of the proportion of senior executives in the banking and other financial industries. In Luxembourg, the proportion of senior executives in relation to the total number of employees in the financial activities and insurance sector is comparable to the EU average (approximately 15%). However, the proportion of senior executives is much higher in some neighbouring countries, such as France (33%) and the United Kingdom (22%).
For further information on this topic please contact Guy Castegnaro or Ariane Claverie at Castegnaro by telephone (+352 26 86 82 1) or email ([email protected] or [email protected]). The Castegnaro website can be accessed at www.castegnaro.lu.
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