Employers and trade unions met in turn with the government on Tuesday 28 February 2023 to prepare for the tripartite meeting, which will take place on Friday 3 March 2023. Photo: Romain Gamba/Maison Moderne

Employers and trade unions met in turn with the government on Tuesday 28 February 2023 to prepare for the tripartite meeting, which will take place on Friday 3 March 2023. Photo: Romain Gamba/Maison Moderne

Ahead of the tripartite meeting on Friday between the government, employee and employer groups, unions and members of prime minister Xavier Bettel’s cabinet met to prepare discussions and get on the same page about the data underlying the debate. 

While there is a lot on the agenda to discuss during the tripartite--a tool that seeks consensus between social partners in crisis situations--bilateral meetings on Tuesday focused on economic figures since September and forecasts for 2023 and 2024. 

(DP) called Tuesday’s exchange “positive and constructive”. , the director of Luxembourg’s statistics bureau Statec, was at hand to take stock of data on the economy so that each party can better understand the situation and start talks based on the same information.

Negotiations on taxation, indexation and the phasing out of energy subsidies will have to wait until Friday.

The employers’ side welcomed the “good discussions” and a “concordance” between Statec’s analyses and what the various sectors were reporting from the field. But the conclusion is gloomy: “For 2024, we are heading for a wall,” said the president of the UEL business union, , who is worried about a “complicated situation for companies” and, more generally, for the country.

Inflation is the main factor for this outlook, and it is “on this point that the government will have to play,” he said.

The scale on the agenda?

Although they had called for an “urgent meeting” on the adaptation of the tax scale, the OGBL, LCGB and CGFP unions will also have to wait until 3 March to hope to discuss it concretely. They recalled the “importance” of such an adjustment in the current economic situation in order to support the purchasing power of households, said LCGB president .

But if the government “took note” of their request and left doubt on the fact that such a subject--taxation--could be addressed in tripartite, it’s a decision that should be taken during the government council on Wednesday 1 March.

In the perspective of the tripartite, the trade union organisations “are strongly committed to obtaining good results,” Dury said. The prime minister, for his part, said that he wants to ensure “that people, the country and companies are strengthened and that our economy will still be prosperous in a few decades.”

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.

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