Businesses assess the new reform in Luxembourg

The laws adopted on Thursday on extending opening hours for shops and greater flexibility for Sunday employment in trade and crafts are unlikely to turn the daily lives of entrepreneurs upside down. This is the opinion of Tom Baumert, director of the Confederation of Luxembourg, who stresses that this is more a matter of fine-tuning than liberalisation in the full sense of the word.

It is the Sunday aspect of the reform that is of most interest to him. According to him, the key achievement was the simplification of administrative procedures and the abandonment of the system of individual permits. "In practice, almost everyone received them, and it ceased to make sense," he notes. The new order essentially legitimises an already established reality, ridding business of formalities.

Baumert is cautious about the expansion of working hours on weekdays. He does not consider an extra hour of work four times a week a major step. It is more of a cosmetic change than a signal of trade liberalisation. Unsurprisingly, many retailers have so far preferred not to take a stand. Large shopping centres such as Belval Plaza won't feel any different at all: according to its director, Thierry Debourse, the opening hours there have long been as wide as possible on weekdays and weekends.

Petrol stations are a separate category. Previously, they enjoyed a special exemption in the legislation, which has now been cancelled. This means that owners will have to re-calculate the economics. Some, admittedly, may prefer to close as early as 19:00 on Saturdays if longer opening hours are not justified in terms of profit. The reform is thus not so much empowering as shifting responsibility for decisions to the business itself.

The law will enter into force six months after publication. The Ministry of Economic Affairs emphasises that any moves outside the time windows will require a collective agreement between employers and employee representatives. And this, according to Baumert, is where the main knot of tension lies: the issue of labour remains complex and sensitive.

However, he urges that the potential effect on employment should not be overlooked. Expanding working hours, he argues, could create new jobs and boost trade. At the same time, Baumert recognises that the institution of regulating working hours is not universal: many countries do not have such laws at all, which raises questions about their real necessity.