More like a lazy family Sunday? Or a solo shopping Sunday? Would you prefer a terrace overlooking the Moselle? Or Cactus (in the morning) or Pall Center (all day)? More baguette and croissants (all day) or online shopping (morning, noon and evening)? To live with the times, we should be able to buy everything all the time, was one of the arguments put forward in October by labour minister  (CSV) when presenting his .

“What will be the reaction of consumers?” , playing its role as a council of wise men in a highly impassioned debate. “Will liberalisation lead to an increase in demand that will offset the costs generated by the proposed arrangements for the businesses concerned, or will existing demand stagnate, although it will be distributed differently across the opening times offered to consumers? Unfortunately, the explanatory memorandum and the commentary on the articles provide no answers to these questions. To justify the need for action, the authors of the bill simply refer to the case law of the constitutional court and to ‘current retail opening practices,’ particularly on the basis of derogations granted in relation to normal opening hours. However, the dossier is silent on consumer habits and the impact of extended opening hours on consumer behaviour. It is on this last point that the reform will crystallise from the point of view of commerce and the craft industry.”

Nobody knows. Even the very comprehensive 112-page EY report commissioned by the Luxembourg Confederation does not specifically address this issue, despite the many avenues for growth it explores for Luxembourg shopkeepers.

No statistics on checks or fines

It is not even necessarily clear who is already working on Sundays today, how many Sundays or even for how long on Sundays. Last week, together with Romain Schmit, secretary general of the Federation of Artisans and Steve Martellini, secretary general of the Horesca professional association, the CEO of the Luxembourg Confederation CEO , called for honesty in the figures. “The unions say it concerns 50,000 people. No. Only half of them work in retail. And 17,000 already have a collective agreement. Secondly, they mention the ratio of 80% single women. But according to Statec and Adem, there are 50% men and 50% women in the retail sector. They don’t know how many single women there are any more than we do.” The Chamber of Employees, in its opinion, says only 38% of players in the sector are covered by a collective agreement.

In its , the Inspectorate of Labour and Mines (ITM) says it received 4,969 applications in 2024, a relatively stable figure since 2019 (7,361 in 2018), including a thousand from the retail trade, the leading sector represented in these applications. But who checks that those who employ people comply with the rules? The economy ministry says that “there are no detailed public statistics specifically devoted to the results of these checks or their consequences.” The ITM says that checks do exist, but that they are not specifically flagged up as “checks in the context of Sunday working.”

In its opinion issued this winter, the Chamber of Employees pointed out that “for years, many businesses in the retail sector have not complied with this rule and have made their employees work until 8 o’clock. The large-scale checks carried out by the Inspectorate of Labour and Mines have changed the situation. But many businesses did not like this, and this project now remedies this by undoing the work done by the ITM.”

When asked about the legal framework and its exceptions, the ministry of the economy states that “for the majority of retail businesses, opening on Sundays is prohibited, unless there are specific exceptions. Horeca establishments (hotels, cafés, restaurants), undertakers, trade fairs and exhibitions are not subject to these restrictions and may be open on Sundays, according to their own needs. Shops located in railway stations or airports also benefit from exceptions and may be open on Sundays, generally according to specific opening hours. For service stations, current legislation provides for specific exceptions, particularly for those located along motorways. Service stations located along motorways are exempt from the opening restrictions and can remain open continuously, including on Sundays. Similarly, other service stations for motor vehicles [other than those located along motorways] do not fall under the application of this law with regard to the towing of vehicles, the sale of fuel, lubricants, spare parts, accessories or maintenance products of primary necessity for the proper operation and breakdown service of motor vehicles as well as the sale of food and non-food products of primary necessity provided that the net sales area of the latter is located within the delimited radius of the station cash desk and does not exceed 20 m2.…”

Since 2024, exceptions have been extended to other shops via derogations, the ministry further states. For certain food shops and essential services such as bakeries, butchers, patisseries, caterers, consumer lounges, newsagents, souvenir shops and tobacconists, these can be open on Sundays from 6am to 6pm.

Exemptions in 35 communes each year

In 2024, states the economy ministry, “19 communes or localities have been authorised to open their shops on certain Sundays of the year; 16 communes or localities have been authorised to open their shops every Sunday; derogations have been granted to open their shops on certain Sundays of the year formulated on the basis of requests from the association of furniture shop operators, the Luxembourg Confederation or car distributors and 12 approvals have been issued for a 24-hour continuous event opening (once a year).”

In fact, concludes the ministry, “on average, each year, 35 municipalities apply for an exemption from the normal regime, either for certain Sundays or for the whole year, so that currently, around 80% of businesses can open, if they so wish.”

There begins another problem: who can and who wants to work on Sundays and under what conditions? In 2018, the ministry of the economy and the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (Liser) launched a survey of 25,413 retail employees, in which 3,751 employees finally took part. We can draw up a sketch, albeit with a grain of salt: those who work on Sundays are most often women, who live in Belgium or France, who are more unionised than others, who use outside childcare (nanny or family member) to work on Sundays, who take 30 to 50 minutes to get to their place of work, who work six or seven days a week (!), who are paid for overtime and earn between €1,500 and €2,100, and who have a harder job because they have to stand, carry loads or deal with aggressive customers. Those who work on Sundays are both more stressed and less satisfied with their work, pay or quality of life.

The fear of being frowned upon or working backwards

The report also points to a head-on opposition between those who do not work evenings or Sundays, who want extended opening hours, and those who do work and want no extension, or even a reduction.

Knowing why they work is also edifying: for the extra pay (58%) ahead of the risk of being viewed badly by other employees if they refuse (45%) and because it is provided for in their employment contracts (45%).

The report concluded that “Sunday working must remain a choice. Thus, the prior signature of a written consent could make it possible to affirm that the choice is voluntary and reduce employees’ fears (loss of job and/or being viewed unfavourably by colleagues if they refuse to work on Sundays). Furthermore, the introduction of support solutions to manage family constraints would help to reduce stress and job dissatisfaction among the employees concerned. Increased pay, working only on Sunday mornings and the possibility of arrangements between colleagues are facilitating factors. Planning Sundays working time and being able to take 15 consecutive days off including three weekends are the two compensations most valued by employees.”

What would change with the new law

General working hours:

Monday to Friday: open from 5am to 10pm (previously 6am to 8pm, with an exception until 9pm once a week).

Saturday: 5am-7pm hours maintained, unless otherwise agreed under a collective agreement.

Sunday: opening from 5am to 7pm (compared with 6am to 1pm previously, although derogations already generalise wider opening).

Public holidays: compulsory closure on 1 May, 25 December and 1 January, except for catering trades or collective agreement.

Holiday days: closes at 7pm, except on 22 June, 24 December and 31 December, when it closes at 6pm (unless there is a collective agreement).

Exemptions: now limited to two nights a year and requiring an agreement under a collective agreement. The minister would no longer intervene directly in the granting of derogations, but the social partners.

In December, the president of the OGBL trade union, , who admitted that she never went shopping on Sundays, described this law as “the greatest liberalisation in the Greater Region,” to the RTL media outlet, whilst the Luxembourg Confederation considered that it did not go far enough by maintaining a system of derogation or agreement through a collective agreement, syndromes of stifling bureaucracy, according to the grouping.

After the , the LCGB and the OGBL demanded a written commitment from the prime minister  (CSV) that he would maintain the prerogative of nationally representative trade union organisations to negotiate and sign collective agreements; the content of collective agreements as currently set out in the labour code, and that the government would abandon its plan to introduce company agreements without nationally representative trade union organisations. It will also give an undertaking that the extension of working time from four to eight hours will be possible only through the negotiation of a collective agreement or an inter-professional agreement.

The results of the social elections make it easy to understand why: in the commerce sector, today, out of the 480 companies that submitted their results, the OGBL and the LCGB trade unions have 38.61% of the 1,222 delegates, and 23.64% of delegates in the hotel and catering sector.

The question is, how many companies will have enough staff to open in accordance with the rules of the game? How many will see the economic benefits? And will the disadvantage to small businesses strengthen the large ones... or the e-commerce players who continue to take market share?

This article was originally published in .