Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 96) - Luxembourg (Ratification: 1958)

Part II of the Convention. Progressive abolition of fee-charging employment agencies. The Committee notes the reply sent in October 2013 by the Government concerning the observations of the Trade Union Organization of Luxembourg (OGB-L). In October 2012, the OGB-L indicated that a number of provisions of the Act of 31 July 2012 on temporary measures respecting employment and unemployment are not in conformity with the provisions of the Convention. The Government indicates that the Act of 31 July 2012 adopting various employment measures has indeed repealed the legal principle under which authorization by the Minister of Labour and Employment is subject to the condition that temporary work agencies are confined to a single activity. It appeared necessary to repeal this principle as, in this field, the activities of temporary work agencies are becoming increasingly inseparable from those of recruitment agencies. The Government specifies that the Act does not in any way authorize temporary work agencies to engage in employment placement activities. Companies specializing in the field of recruitment are only subject to authorization by the Ministry of the Middle Classes, while temporary work agencies require a double authorization from the Ministry of the Middle Classes and the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Furthermore, in the report received in September 2014, the Government recalls the conditions governing the activities of temporary work agencies and the authorizations issued by the Ministry of Labour, which makes decisions after obtaining the views of the Employment Development Agency and the labour inspectorate, which would be in conformity with Part III. Regulation of fee-charging employment agencies. The Committee notes that on 6 November 1958 the Government informed the ILO that its ratification of the Convention included acceptance of the provisions of Part II of the Convention. The Committee once again draws the Government’s attention to the fact that, like other member States which ratified Convention No. 96 and accepted Part II thereof, Luxembourg undertook to abolish fee-charging employment agencies. The Committee recalls that the revision of Convention No. 96 was based on recognition of the role played by private employment agencies in the operation of the labour market and that the modern standard in this field is now the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181). It also recalls that the Governing Body of the ILO has invited States’ parties to Convention No. 96 to contemplate ratifying, as appropriate, the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181), the ratification of which would, ipso dure, involve the immediate denunciation of Convention No. 96 (GB.273/LILS/4(Rev.1), 273rd Session, Geneva, November 1998). The Committee invites the Government to provide information on any developments which may occur in this regard in consultation with the social partners.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2016.]