The Luxembourg Labor Court upheld the complaint of “unfair dismissal” on 2 January 2019 filed by an employee at the residence of Ambassador António Gamito, declaring the request for payment of severance pay of 9,566 euros, as well as grounds, as well as as the payment of vacation of 96.63 euros and the payment of compensation for moral damages of 10 thousand euros.
The sentence, dated February 3, thus condemns the Portuguese State, represented by its ambassador in Luxembourg, to pay the residency assistant the sum of 19,663.18 euros, with interest. The complainant claimed a total compensation of 115.8 thousand euros.
“What is at stake are the principles. Even if it was a penny, ”said Eduardo Dias, head of the immigration department at the Luxembourg trade union center OGBL, in statements to Lusa.
“The Portuguese State, when it hires people in Luxembourg, France, Germany, or wherever it is, respects the rules of the country where it hires people. In fact, write that in the contracts ”, underlined the same official, arguing that“ the rules of diplomatic immunity were not made to exploit workers ”.
On the other hand, the union leader recalls that “the Portuguese State did not respect the minimum wage”, and that “it is true” that it “is now respected”, but the State continues to “not respect the law”.
“It’s not just the minimum wage: Luxembourg has rules in terms of indexing wages to inflation that are still not being respected. Even today, there are still other people who still do not have their salary updated ”, accused Eduardo Dias.
The case goes back to the end of 2018. The Portuguese embassy in Luxembourg started by publishing an announcement of a competition for a “residency assistant”, signed by Ambassador António Gamito, in office since October of that year, and published on the 29th of that month on the website Embassy Internet.
The remuneration was fixed in the advertisement at 1,874.19 euros gross per month, a value lower than the minimum wage for unqualified people, which was 2,048.54 euros per month.
According to the warning, the embassy opened a tender under the program for extraordinary regularization of precarious ties in the public administration, but the employee, who has served in the diplomatic services in Luxembourg since 1993, refused to sign it.
Article 222-10 of the Luxembourg Labor Code provides that employers who pay less than the Luxembourg minimum wage “are liable to a fine between 251 and 25 thousand euros”, a figure that can be doubled, up to 50 thousand euros, “In the event of a repeat offense within two years”.
Decree-Law 47/2013, of April 5, which regulates the legal and labor regime for workers in the external peripheral services of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provides, in Article 2, that “local imperative rules are applied to them ”.
Regulatory decree no. 3/2013, of 8 May, which establishes remuneration tables for MNE outside workers, establishes as minimum remuneration in Luxembourg 1,874.19 euros, an amount that was above the Luxembourg minimum wage at the time when the diploma was published in 2013, which at that time was 1,846.51 euros.
In the preamble to the same diploma, it is specified that these remunerations are adapted “according to the specificities of the place where the activities are provided, namely the respect for mandatory minimum wages”.
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