Reclassification: a repair patch rather than the reform trade unions had hoped for

Politics is a thankless business. When the government is slow to introduce legislation, it comes in for criticism, and if it acts swiftly, it is suspected of cutting corners. This is the criticism hanging over Marc Spautz (CSV) in a flagship issue for the trade unions: professional redeployment and, more specifically, the lump-sum redeployment allowance.

This has seen a resurgence in prominence, if not in attention, since the Constitutional Court, in its ruling of 24 October 2025, judged that the unequal treatment of redeployed employees brought to its attention "calls into question the entire mechanism combining redeployment and the lump-sum allowance", as reported in a previous article in the Lëtzebuerger Journal. The government has a duty to promptly amend the legislation criticised by the Constitutional Court, and this is precisely what Marc Spautz did by tabling two amendments in mid-July, which were approved by the Government Council. As he had told the Journal in February, "we must agree on the amendments before the end of this year, because, procedurally speaking, it will be difficult to pass any bills that are not tabled by December before the next general election."