On Monday 27 June 2016, the Executive Committee of the LCGB trade union met to discuss two current contentious issues: dependency insurance reform and the reform of family benefits.

The Government Council has passed a draft law on the reform of dependency insurance - a move which has been criticised by the LCGB as against the many questions raised by social partners which reportedly remain unanswered.

The LCGB dismissed the government's reiterations of its commitment to maintaining the quality of services and existing jobs in the support and care sector, claiming that the draft law does not reflect this intention. The texts that will address the quality aspect will be adopted as Grand Ducal regulations which reportedly are non-existent at present, whilst fears have not abated regarding a decrease in employment relative to the budgetary savings measures initiated in 2015 under the "Zukunftspak", of €-14.5 million in 2016 and €-38.5 million the following year.

"The LCGB deeply regrets that the Government has taken the decision to no longer continue discussions with social partners and to adopt and incomplete and incoherent text for the simple reason of being aple to keep the date of entry into force of the reform for 1 January 2017," an official statement from the trade union read. "Without answers to several key questions about the operation of the new dependency insurance and the lack of a new coordinated text which takes up all of the government amendments made since the transmission of the initial draft legislation until the end of April 2016, the LCGB cannot at this stage agree to the dependency insurance reform."

The Executive Committee acknowledged the autonomy insurance project being prepared in the region of Wallonia, calling for the conclusion of a bilateral agreement between Belgium and Luxembourg to define the operating principles between the two dependency insurance systems so that every Belgian cross-border worker could benefit where appropriate.

Since the introduction of Luxembourg dependency insurance in the late 1990s, 175,000 cross-border workers (40,000 of which are Belgian), have contributed to a social benefits system which they themselves have only been able to benefit from in a very limited way. A bilateral agreement could avoid recourse on cross-border judtice and settle the issue once and for all so as to not hypothecate the Luxembourg dependency insurance system.

The LCGB has sent an open letter to Luxembourg MPs urging them not to vote for the family benefits reform this 29 June, which it claims aims to make savings off the backs of families. It refuted government claims that no one would lose with the reform, instead contending that numerous current families will suffer financial losses from September whilst future families will see themselves receiving far less in terms of family allowances.

The LCGB further claimed that the proposed reform does not take into consideration the social selectivity of family benefits, support for single-parent families, or the fight against child poverty.