Name of Educational Leave Scheme

Paid Educational leave

• Introduction
• Legal framework
• Objectives
• Types of training
• Training providers
• Target sector(s)
• Target group(s)
• Eligibility criteria
• Duration of training
• Status of participants
• Regulation, control and monitoring procedures
• Funding mechanisms
• Payment to persons on leave
• Statistics

Despite not having signed ILO Convention 140 on paid educational leave, Luxembourg nonetheless has legislation on the subject. The first Law of October 1973 applies to company employees, public employees and civil servants, whilst the second one of 18 May 1979 only covers designated company staff representatives.

The amended Law of 18 May 1979, reforming staff delegations, as amended by the Laws of 3 April 1980 and 3 November 1983.

According to this Law all companies which regularly employ 15 people are required to have a staff delegation. The head of company is responsible for organising elections while the delegates' remit runs for 5 years and is renewable. Article 26 of the Law deals with educational leave for official company staff representatives.

TArticle 26 stipulates that employers are required to grant official staff representatives the free time - known as educational leave - needed to take part in training activities organised by trade union organisations or specialised institutions, which clash with normal working hours, and are intended to improve their economic, social and technical knowledge in their role as worker representatives, and this without any loss of earnings.

Weekly courses are reserved for the representatives, covering the following subjects: company financial management, labour law, safety within the company, pension insurance, the national employment action plan, etc

Training activities are organised by trade union organisations or specialised institutions. Most courses are provided by the École supérieure du travail, the institution approved for this purpose under an agreement drawn up between the trade unions and employer representatives.

This law concerns all companies, which regularly employ 15 people and which are obliged to have a staff delegation.

Official staff representatives of companies

Applicants must be officially elected as staff delegates for a period of 5 years.

The length of educational leave depends on the size of the company:

• for companies employing between 15 and 50 workers, each official member is entitled to one week's educational leave during his term, with related salary expenses being borne by the State;
• for companies employing between 51 and 150 workers, each official member is entitled to two weeks' educational leave during his term, with one week's salary being borne by the State;
• in companies regularly employing more than 150 workers, official staff delegation members are each entitled to one week's educational leave per year at the company's expense.

They enjoy the same status and rights as during employment.

The National Youth Service, which is currently part of the Ministry for the Family, Social Solidarity and Youth Affairs, is responsible for implementing this Law.

The National Youth Service also manages a corresponding budget line.

As far as payment during educational leave is concerned:

• public sector employees continue to receive their salary;
• private sector employees receive an allowance equal to their salary, to be reimbursed to the employer by the State;
• liberal professionals are entitled to a flat-rate allowance.

The Law of 22 June 1999

A further aspect of Luxembourg's legislation can be linked to the question of paid educational leave without actually being part and parcel of it. It should be stressed that the Law of 22 June 1999 aims to support and develop ongoing vocational training, and as such is intended to regulate collective rather than individual access to vocational training. We mention this by way of information since Article 4 of the Law provides that only training projects or plans under which at least half the training takes place during working hours may benefit from the financial provisions. Since this Law only came into force on 1 January 2000, it is still too early to draw any conclusions about working hours spent in training.

Comment:

An inter-ministerial working party is currently working on legislation aimed at regulating individual access to continuing vocational training. It thus seems likely that current legislation on educational leave will also be revised.