For the chamber, the draft bill’s is “excessively generous” and sports activities outside of work should be considered as leisure activity and would fall within the scope of the employee’s regular annual leave. Archive photo: Mike Zenari

For the chamber, the draft bill’s is “excessively generous” and sports activities outside of work should be considered as leisure activity and would fall within the scope of the employee’s regular annual leave. Archive photo: Mike Zenari

The chamber of trades (chambre des métiers) fears that small and medium enterprises could suffer from the knock-on effects of a new sports leave bill which would give those involved in sporting competitions the right to take a leave.

A maximum of 90 days of sports leave has been set by the draft bill for elite athletes who have an Olympic or Paralympic contract. That number is significantly lower for elite athletes without a contract (30 days maximum), those part of a senior national team (20 days) and judges or referees (25 days). While the chamber of trades recognises the sports leave as a government mechanism to support high-level sport in Luxembourg, it states that this current version could “risks to strongly disorganise small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) due to prolonged and multiple absences.”

For the chamber, the draft bill is “excessively generous” and sports activities outside of work should be considered as leisure activity and would fall within the scope of the employee’s regular annual leave. It proposes to limit the number of beneficiaries per company and the number of days of sports leave granted. This is in order to limit the negative impact on activities of small and medium-sized businesses, the chamber argues.

According to the current draft bill, the sports ministry should grant sports leaves for working adults. The chamber requests that this decision should be in the hands of the employer.