The committee on the economic outlook met this week with economy minister Franz Fayot (LSAP) and labour ministry Dan Kersch (LSAP) solidarity economy, in order to discuss updates of the short-time working scheme.  

In November, 4,172 businesses filed an application for the short-time working scheme, an increase of 1,379 applications compared to the month prior, the committee said. 

In comparison, during the same period in 2019, when the covid-19 pandemic had not yet put a hold on the economy, only 25 short-time working applications were submitted.

So far, 3,809 of the aforementioned applications have been accepted, adding up to a total of 30,244 workers that will be partially unemployed in December (up from 22,075 the previous month).

Moreover, the application process has been extended until 4 December. 

During the meeting, the committee also adopted new terms and conditions for short-time working applications in the context of the restrictions in place until 31 December. These were subsequently endorsed by cabinet and enable businesses that have not yet submitted a request for short-time working for the month of November and/or December to: 

• apply between 27 November and 4 December for short-time working via a designated form available on MyGuichet.lu 
• benefit from a short-time working rate of 100% of the total number of hours unemployed during the closure. 

It was also specified that companies that had already submitted an application for short-time working for the months of November and December do not have to submit a new form but will automatically be entitled to the rate of 100%.