The Fédération des Artisans urged the government on 16 June to use the breathing space created by the 8 June tripartite agreement to move on reforms in housing, work organisation and the status of the self-employed.

Luxembourg’s craft employers’ federation recognised that the deal had brought short-term relief. It said energy measures should help contain inflation, while the risk of three wage indexation rounds in 2027 now appeared lower.

But it said the tripartite had bought time rather than solved the problems facing small and medium-sized businesses. “The real question is not what the tripartite has resolved, but whether Luxembourg is ready to begin the reforms that are needed,” the federation said.

The organisation, which represents more than 9,000 craft businesses and about 103,000 employees, linked those reforms to stalled construction activity, labour planning and the risks carried by independent workers.

Housing and wages

Housing is the federation’s first priority because the same blockage that keeps homes scarce also cuts into its members’ activity. Too little is being built, investors have pulled back and weak construction demand leaves firms with less work, while the resulting shortage makes recruitment harder and keeps wage pressure high.

The federation said Luxembourg needs around 6,500 new homes a year, citing Statec, while effective production had fallen, according to the organisation, to roughly 1,000 completed units. It also pointed to weak off-plan sales, with 149 transactions in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with an average of 714 per quarter before the crisis.

“Luxembourg will not solve the housing crisis through wages,” the federation said. “It will solve it by building — and to build, it needs investment.”

The organisation estimated Luxembourg’s annual housing financing need at about €4,000 million, compared with roughly €500 million a year expected through the special fund for affordable housing between 2026 and 2029. On that calculation, public spending covers about one-eighth of the annual need, leaving the rest to private and institutional investors.

The federation welcomed measures announced around the tripartite and the State of the Nation address, including a planned reduction in registration duties on the construction share of off-plan sales and the announced reform of completion guarantees. It said both reflected demands it had made.

But it argued that those steps would not be enough to bring investment back. Its proposals include restoring tax incentives for rental investment, temporarily reducing capital gains tax to free up building land, raising the planned housing bond from €150 million to €250 million, and using tools such as rent-to-buy models and the planned Biergerfong citizen fund.

Work organisation

The federation’s second demand concerns work organisation, which it said was absent from the tripartite even though it is directly linked to productivity and employment.

It argued that labour law still reflects an industrial model built for the early 20th century, while companies and employees now face different working patterns, family constraints and planning needs. “It is not about protecting less, but about protecting and organising differently,” the federation said.

The organisation said it did not want to challenge the 40-hour week, the right of trade unions to sign collective agreements or safeguards such as overtime premiums, working-time records, refusal rights, rest periods and health and safety rules.

Its seven proposals include allowing working days of up to 10 hours within the 40-hour week, more room to handle exceptional peaks, greater flexibility for part-time work with employee agreement, changes to unpaid breaks and weekly rest, simpler overtime procedures and easier use of work organisation plans.

For the craft firms it represents, the issue is whether small employers can plan work and absorb peaks while keeping the safeguards the federation says should remain in place. The federation said the discussion should now open with social partners, including within the labour-employment committee.

The independent gap

The third demand concerns the self-employed, whom the federation described as once again left aside after a tripartite focused largely on employees earning the social minimum wage.

Independent workers play an essential role in business creation, family firms and succession, the federation said, but still lack a framework adapted to the risks they carry. It said the pandemic had exposed a three-speed system: civil servants on full pay, employees supported by short-time work and self-employed workers dependent on ad hoc aid rather than structural protection.

The federation also pointed to promises already made. Reform of the self-employed status appears in the 2023-2028 coalition agreement, and the organisation cited a unanimous parliamentary motion in 2023. So far, it said, the only concrete progress had been one partial measure on combining early pension with self-employed activity.

It also pointed to a 2023 tax change that it says left many self-employed company managers unable to deduct mandatory social contributions through the business. The federation is asking for equal tax treatment of those contributions, which it says would be cost-neutral for public finances, as well as protection against temporary shocks such as bad weather, technical disruption and economic crises without requiring the business to close.

“The self-employed worker is not an employee,” the federation said. “But self-employed workers should not be left to carry all social risks alone.” It framed the issue as one of attractiveness, arguing that creating or taking over a business becomes too risky without a more balanced framework.