A steel tripartite meeting of representatives from government, unions and employers on Thursday morning ended with recriminations and denials over the future of Arcelor Mittal’s Dommeldange site.

The meeting was the third called to discuss plans announced in September to cut more than 500 jobs in the grand duchy, where the steel maker has its international headquarters. Employers and unions had set up working groups to identify where cuts could be made and how the workforce could be restructured in an effort to minimise the number of redundancies.

Six meetings later, the working groups have identified 308 employees who will be able to take early retirement, and some 280 jobs that will have to be part of a new restructuring plan. But the union notes that 202 positions will have to be replaced.

Arcelor Mittal is planning to invest between €150m and €200m to improve efficiency and sustainability at its Luxembourg production plants. But the LCGB has said it fears the site in Dommeldange could fall victim to the restructuring plans. It claimed the company is eager to sell the site for property development.

But in French-language daily l’Essentiel, an ArcelorMittal spokesperson was cited as saying that Dommeldange will not close. “However, a study is being carried out on the efficiency of the work of the mechanical workshop in Dommeldange for the sites of Belval, Differdange and Rodange.”