Discussions continue on the renewal of the Banking Sector Collective Labour Agreement (CLC) for 2021-23, after some difficult meetings and the fact that the tension is sharp between financial sector trade union, Aleba, on the one hand, and unions OGBL and LCGB on the other.

Thursday’s discussions included a highly sensitive subject: wages. The trade unions are demanding a guarantee of wage developments according to salary scales and a linear increase for all employees. The subject of so-called “false managers” thus quickly came up, referring to employees who, by benefiting from the executive status but without fully and perfectly meeting the legal definition of the status, find themselves thrust out of the collective labour agreement. The unions have been fighting this situation for many years and have taken legal action, with recent results.

Indeed, according to the OGBL and LCGB, “the issue of ‘false executives’ is directly related to that of the pay scale, knowing that the latter are paid individually” and therefore "out of scale".

According to the unions, the ABBL does not see it this way and refuses "any wage increases and improvements that would recognize the full commitment of employees. The ABBL even threatened that, in the absence of an agreement on the points relating to remuneration, the 13th month would be called into question."

Obviously unacceptable for the trade unions, which refuse for "the health crisis [to be] used to take employees hostage and thus deprive them of any financial improvements over a period of three years."

This article was originally published in French on Paperjam.lu and has been translated and edited for Delano.