Xavier Bettel in favor of maintaining the index
The Prime Minister of Luxembourg says he is against the abolition of the principle of adjusting wages and pensions to inflation. The head of government is equally opposed to a reduction in working time.
2023 will be a election year in the Grand Duchy. With this major meeting of legislative on October 8 next. Also, Xavier Bettel’s recent speech on RTL was she particularly expected, the current Prime Minister having made no secret of his intention to leave for a possible third term.
And the head of government DP has already affirmed a major point of the program that the liberal party could defend: the mechanism of the index must be maintained. ” The index is a measure of social peace “recalled Xavier Bettel. This while the Grand Duchy should know 2 or 3 salary adjustmentsof the retreats and salaries of civil servants (+2.5%) in the next twelve months.
To hear the one who runs Luxembourg for 9 yearsthere would also be no question in the future of cap this index. A choice that is nevertheless advocated by a number of companies for whom the overall increase in wages weighs heavily in accounts already disrupted by the crisis and rising prices.
Pandora’s box
In any case, if a third index was to be awarded this year, public finances alone will pay for this new increase.
However, Xavier Bettel does not intend to close the door to the discussion on index reform. The mechanism activated since 1921 and extended to all salaries in 1975 could thus be the subject of some fine-tuning. the the subject is not ” taboo »even if the Prime Minister knows that this discussion amounts to playing with Pandora’s box: ” If it opens the debate, we don’t know where we will get out of it… »
Aware that the country must ensure that it maintains its attractivenessXavier Bettel also specified that he did not intend not return to the weekly working time Luxembourgish. The 40h/week must remain the norm, for the moment. ” None of that with us! a sliced the Prime Minister.
The statesman prefers to return the ball to the camp of the social partners to agree on new forms of work, offering more flexibility to employees. A way of working” à la carte could thus be an axis of reflection. But there is no question of aligning working time with neighboring models (35 hours per week in France, 38 hours in Belgium).
Taxes: at best, “ adjustments »
In the interview given to RTLthe Prime Minister also returned to the impossibilityin his eyes, carried out a major tax reform. The covid crisis and the economic crisis have come to thwart what was a promise ofcoalition agreement DP-LSAP-Déi Gréng.
If 2023 will be marked by a decrease insingle parent family tax, the financial margins are not sufficient to go much longer. However, as the finance minister said a few weeks ago, however, tax relaxations could be decided here or there.
The government will analyze the advisability of carrying out these ” adjustments ” in spring.