The cross-border workers of Moselle look gray. Those employed in neighboring Luxembourg will no longer benefit from the advantages afforded them, during the Covid pandemic, by the possibility of teleworking, without leaving Lorraine. The rule is that beyond 25% of the working time carried out in his country of residence (and therefore in telework), the French employee falls back into the bosom of the French Social Security… much less interesting than its Luxembourg counterpart. . The provision, temporarily frozen under a teleworking agreement between the two countries, comes back into force at the end of June.
Work on the A3 and disrupted rail traffic
“Social coverage in the Grand Duchy is much better, for example for dependency or the absence of waiting days”, specifies Christian Simon-Lacroix, of the OGBL border workers’ union. Especially since the tax rule also provides that beyond a threshold of 24 days worked in France, the French system applies for the calculation of the pension. “One year contributed in Luxembourg to the general scheme is financially equivalent to five years on average in France”, he says. He demands that, initially, the situation be frozen, or even modeled on Belgium. In addition to Quiévrain, a French employee can work up to 48 days in his country without losing his border status.
But other very concrete prospects worry the 112,000 French cross-border workers, who work mainly in banking or insurance in Luxembourg and can hope for salaries higher by a third, but sometimes much more: work on the A3, the main artery. Traffic jams spoil the daily lives of cross-border commuters who lose an average of two hours a day. To make matters worse, rail traffic also promises to be disrupted this summer.