In Luxembourg there are 2 employee chambers, the Chamber of Employees (Chambre des salariés - CSL) and the Chamber of Civil Servants and Public Employees (Chambre des fonctionnaires et employés publics).

The Chamber of Employees includes approximately 400,000 members, and all have the right to vote in social elections. In fact, all employees and retirees, residents and cross-border workers, except civil servants, must be registered with the CSL, regardless of their nationality or place of residence.

Every 5 years, employees are invited to elect 60 representatives to the Chamber of Employees at the national level. These latter are members of the Plenary Assembly (Assemblée plénière). They determine the guidelines and policies governing the CSL's missions and activities.

Who is concerned

• All resident and non-resident employees working in Luxembourg under private law status
• Agents of Luxembourg railways (Chemins de fer luxembourgeois - CFL)
• Retirees receiving a pension for one of these two occupations.

How to proceed

Roll and missions of the Chamber of Employees

The CLS's main mission is to represent and safeguard the interests of employees and retirees working in Luxembourg or who have worked there. Its roles and activities are the following:

• an advisory role as part of the legislative process through the preparation of opinions on Grand-Ducal draft laws;
• a representative role, through presence on governmental advisory bodies (Mercy Commission (Commission de grâce), High Council for Statistics (Conseil supérieur de la statistique), etc.);
• a representative role, through the appointment of employee representatives in social security institutions (National Health Fund (Caisse nationale de santé), National Pension Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale d'assurance pension), etc.) and representatives to labour jurisdictions (labour tribunal - tribunal du travail) and social security jurisdictions.
• a source of information for topics related to labour and socio-economic issues, through a series of publications;
• a training role, in both initial and continuing training (organisation of professional training, courses for adults).

An annual contribution, which is automatically deducted at source by the employer or the pension fund (Caisse de pension) allows the CSL to assume its various roles.

Voting procedure

The elections take place between 15 October and 15 November, every fifth calendar year, at a date set by the Minister of Labour (Ministre du Travail).

Members elect 60 representatives and their alternates, in their respective socio-professional categories, based on lists presented by trade unions. Members may vote for a list or a number of individual candidates, corresponding to the number of members to elect in the respective group. Participation in the vote is optional.

Voting takes place by post using anonymous ballots. A ballot corresponding to the voter's professional category is sent to their address by post. Once completed, voters return the ballot to the polling office, before the closing date of the elections, using a pre-stamped envelope.

Permanent and alternate representatives are elected by post for a term of five years and may be re-elected. The elections take place between 15 October and 15 November, every fifth calendar year, at a date set by the Minister of Labour (Ministre du Travail).

Breakdown of socio-professional categories

In order to guarantee professional representation within the CSL, the number of seats allocated to each socio-professional category is determined by the number of employees represented in that category.

The CSL comprises 60 seats, which are allocated as follows:

• Group 1, iron and steel products: 5 seats
• Group 2, other industries: 8 seats
• Group 3, construction: 6 seats
• Group 4, financial services and intermediation: 8 seats
• Group 5, services: 14 seats
• Group 6, public administrations and enterprises: 4 seats
• Group 7, health and social action: 6 seats
• Group 8, CFL: 3 seats
• Group 9, pension holders: 6 seats

Election results

Once the elections have been validated, through the adoption of a closing report, the chairperson of the electoral office for elections of delegates to the Chamber of Employees communicates the results of the vote count.

Who to contact