The large number of fines, totalling €5.3 million, was largely due to the expansion of the ITM’s teams and streamlining of procedures.

Presenting its annual report at a press conference on Thursday, ITM director Marco Boly said a number of work-related forms and procedures had been moved online, lightening the administrative burden.

The same year, it created a secondment service to manage employee postings and checks within companies that post staff to Luxembourg, and a data protection service to guarantee GDPR is adhered to. Its team expanded and by the end of 2019, the ITM employed 143 staff, of which 54 were labour inspectors, almost twice the number employed in 2016.

Further hires were made in the first quarter of 2020, bringing total staffing levels to 187 with 73 inspectors by April 2020. By December 2020, it forecasts staffing numbers to reach 214, of which 89 will be labour inspectors.