On 18 March 2020, the Luxembourg government declared the “state of emergency”, which has been extended for a period of 3 months by the law of 24 March 2020, enabling the government to quickly implement temporary regulations to deal with the exceptional situation in relation with the Covid-19 pandemic.
In this context, the government had to take urgent measures to help companies to face the reduction of their activity, maintain the economic situation of the country and avoid terminations of employment contracts.
Therefore, many of these regulations concern labour law aspects, and the last months have been very challenging for employers, who had to adapt gradually to these new measures, and face a difficult economic situation at the same time. Indeed, due to the urgency, many regulations lack precision and are subject to different interpretations.
Despite the different state aids, some employers, to save their business, will have no choice but to proceed to terminations for economic reasons, which leaves the question open whether the measures taken are sufficient.
From another perspective, this exceptional situation has permitted to develop new ideas regarding our way of working and organisation in the offices, especially through teleworking. To be seen whether this will have a long-lasting effect in the post-crisis period.