Deputies on Wednesday heard a petition calling for the value of food vouchers paid out to civil servants to be raised from €10.80 to €15 per day, while the civil service minister took aim at comparisons between the public and private sectors.
The initiative attracted significant interest, gathering 6,514 signatures in just 42 days and surpassing the new 5,500-signature threshold required for a public hearing.
Presenting his case in the Chamber, petitioner Mareck Frantzen said that “the meal allowance for civil servants, currently €204 per month, has not been increased since 2019.”
His petition, the first to reach the higher quorum introduced in March, argues that an update is long overdue. “Failure to adapt would mean that civil servants themselves would have to pay for expenses incurred as a result of their work,” he said, adding that low-income staff bear “disproportionately high costs”.
The freezing of the allowance, he said, “leads to a feeling of injustice in the administration,” especially as private-sector meal vouchers are regularly adjusted.
Also read:Majority of Luxembourg workers do not receive meal vouchers, survey shows
‘Not comparable to the private-sector vouchers’
Frantzen also argued that the stagnating allowance is undermining recruitment. “The public administration loses its attractiveness due to the fixed allowance and has difficulties recruiting staff for important areas,” he claimed. In his view, the budgetary impact of an increase would be modest compared with the benefits in purchasing power, motivation and performance.
Petition committee president Francine Closener reminded petitioners, however, that the Chamber cannot directly change the value of food vouchers and urged them to bring the issue to the unions, who negotiate public-sector wages with the government. Integrating the measure into future talks, she noted, could open the way to an eventual update.
Responding for the government, Minister of the Civil Service Serge Wilmes defended the latest salary agreement for public sector workers, which includes a 2.5% wage increase phased in until 2026 – on top of regular wage indexations.
“A civil servant in category C2, who currently earns €5,500, will receive €137 more per month as a result of the 2.5% increase.”
By contrast, raising the meal allowance from €10.80 to €15 per day would represent roughly €128 more per month. “With the 2.5% that will be added, we are already above what a meal allowance would bring in the lower categories,” he said.
Wilmes also rejected comparisons with the private sector, noting that a meal voucher is paid out to less than 50% of all employees in the private sector, and that their vouchers can only be used for food. In the public service, “it is added to the salary and you can do what you want with it,” he said.
Wilmes also pointed out that the taxpayer subsidises several canteens for its staff.
(This article has first been published by Contacto and Luxemburger Wort. AI translated, with editing and adaptation by Lucrezia Reale.)