Who is working overtime in Luxembourg: a record at the Ministry of Education - 2.25 million hours

According to the Luxembourg Ministry of Public Service, employees of the Ministry of Education have become the absolute leaders in overtime: 2.25 million overtime hours accumulated between 2021 and 2024, spread over 18,000 employees. This was revealed in the official response of the Minister of Public Service, Serge Wilmes, to a parliamentary enquiry by MP Ben Polidori (LSAP).

The figure is not just a record - it is twice that of any other ministry, indicating a serious strain on education workers.

The complete data covers 20 government ministries, and here's what the recycling picture looks like:

• Ministry of Finance: about 1 million hours, 2,530 employees;
• Grand Ducal Police Corps (under the Home Office): almost 1.3 million hours for 3,200 officers;
• National Roads Service (within the Ministry of Mobility): 360,000 hours for 1,275 people;
• Ministry of Research and Higher Education: a total of 406 hours spread across 70 staff - almost no overtime.

Luxembourg has a system of CET (compte épargne-temps) - individual accounts of accumulated hours - where civil servants can enter their overtime and then turn it into paid holidays or leave. This system provides flexibility of schedule and allows time management not only in favour of the state, but also in the interests of the employee.

However, the scale of rework in some agencies raises questions about the sustainability of the workload and the effectiveness of planning.