Positive action (Article 5 Directive 2000/43, Article 7 Directive 2000/78)

• Author: Hoffmann, Tania
• Pages: 29-29

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5 POSITIVE ACTION (Article 5 Directive 2000/43, Article 7 Directive 2000/78)

a) Scope for positive action measures

In Luxembourg, positive action is permitted in national law in respect of racial or ethnic

origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation

As far as employment is concerned, the provisions relating to positive action can be found

in:

- Article 18 (introducing Article 252-3 in the Labour Code) of the Law of 28 November

2006, which provides that:

‘In order to ensure full equality in practice the principle of equal treatment does

not prevent the maintaining or adoption of specific measures to prevent or

compensate for disadvantages linked to one of the grounds mentioned in Article

L-251-1 paragraph (1)’;

- Article: 1-3(2) (introducing Article 1 bis (2) in the amended Law of 16 April 1979

establishing the general statute of state civil servants;

- Article 2-3(2) (introducing Article 1 bis (2) in the amended Law of 24 December 1985

establishing the general statute of municipal civil servants) of the Law of 29

November 2006, which provides that:

‘In order to ensure full equality in practice the principle of equal treatment does

not prevent the maintaining or adoption of specific measures to prevent or

compensate for disadvantages linked to one of the grounds mentioned in

section 1’.

There are no provisions in the law regarding positive action outside the field of

employment.

b) Quotas in employment for people with disabilities

In Luxembourg, national law provides for quotas for the employment of people with

disabilities.

A minimum proportion of 5 % of public sector employees must be disabled workers.

In the private sector, employers with 25 employees must employ one disabled worker; the

proportion of disabled workers must be 2 % for 50 employees and 4 % for 300 employees.

If the employer refuses to employ the requested numbers of disabled workers, they must

pay a fine corresponding to 50 % of the social minimum salary to the Public Treasury. In

practice, no sanction is applied.

According to the most recent statistics from 2016, only 3 400 disabled workers were

employed: 18 % in the public sector, 40 % in the private sector and 42 % in sheltered

workshops. The statistics only cover workers officially recognised as having a 30 %

disability.