All articles

Germany: law adopted to reduce wage gap between men and women
On Thursday 30 March, Germany’s Bundestag adopted a long-discussed law on equal pay of men and women. In order to reduce the sizeable wage gap that exists between men and women, the bill...
31 March 2017
France: CFDT becomes largest trade union organisation in private sector
On 31 March, the level of trade union representation across industries in the private sector was made public. The statistics are published every four years according to the results of professional...
31 March 2017
Netherlands: workers on service provision contracts to benefit from legislation on minimum wage and paid leave allowance
Under the law adopted on 28 March, legislation on the minimum wage and paid leave has been extended to apply to workers employed under a service provision contract. The change comes after another...
31 March 2017
Great Britain: to minimize uncertainty, London will copy European law into UK law
After having triggered Article 50 on 29 March and thereby launching the UK’s official exit from the EU, on 30 March the government published its White Paper on Legislating for the United Kingdom’s...
30 March 2017
Italy: Italcementi restructuring enables managers to move to local SMEs
Italy’s multinational cement company Italcementi, bought in 2016 by Germany’s HeidelbergCement has launched a landmark initiative, which in collaboration with the employers’ body Confindustria and...
30 March 2017
Germany: employers hold that metal workers are satisfied with their working time
At a time when the IG Metall union is calling for more employee friendly working time flexibility, on 27 March the employers’ body Gesamtmetall unveiled the conclusions of a representative survey...
29 March 2017
Spain: the second national collective agreement is signed for the metals sector
On 27 March, the CCOO and UGT-FICA unions, together with the employers’ body, Confemetal, signed the second national collective agreement for the metals sector (industry, technology, and...
29 March 2017
LafargeHolcim: signs an agreement establishing an EWC
Signed on 27 March, the agreement puts an EWC in place for the new group that resulted from the merger in 2015 of two cement giants, one Swiss and one French, and places it under Belgian...
29 March 2017
Bonduelle: a new EWC agreement
In a press statement published on 28 March, EFFAT, the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions announced a new EWC agreement for the French vegetable processing producer...
29 March 2017
News update as of 28 March 2017
On the menu: EU negotiator Barnier’s Brexit sets out conditions, Silicon Valley’s engineers tempted by unionization, the impact on the labor market of Greek Government’s discussions with...
24 March 2017
France: collective agreement reached for umbrella companies
With the creation of a branch for umbrella companies in December, social partners were tasked with building a framework for the development of this form of employment – a halfway house between...
24 March 2017
France: Constitutional Council abandons provisions for the issuing of fines, under law on multinationals’ due diligence
On the evening of 23 March, France’s Constitutional Council ruled that the provisions for issuing fines, under the law on the due diligence of multinationals companies, are not compliant with the...
24 March 2017
Argentina: salary agreement in retail sector
The retail sector trade union in Argentina has reached an annual salary agreement with the country’s government and employers’ chambers. By striking the deal, the largest trade union in the...
24 March 2017
Brazil: law adopted liberalizing sub-contracting
On 22 March legislation (Lei da terceirização) was adopted that opens recourse to sub-contracting to all business activities rather than as previously was the case just to activities unrelated to...
23 March 2017
Finland: the president of the employers association seeks an end to collective agreements and looks to chop 10%-15% off salaries
The employers’ toughening stance is nothing new. At the end of spring 2016 employers (EK) announced that contrary to the general custom in place since the end of WWII they intended to suspend...
23 March 2017
News update as of March 22, 2017
On the menu: almost one million working on 'zero hour' contracts in Great Britain, draft law on disabled worker inclusion soon to be adopted in Chile, ans Japan's government is to collaborate with...
21 March 2017
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
What readers clicked on the most last month.
What readers clicked on the most last month.
1
Catherine Chavanier (CDC Habitat): “Social dialogue on AI facilitates its deployment”
In February, CDC Habitat (10,500 employees) signed a two-year framework agreement governing social dialogue on AI. Catherine Chavanier, HR Director of the subsidiary of CDC (Caisse des dépôts et...
2
Greece: hospitality sector signs first collective agreement aligned with National Social Pact
The hospitality sector (125,000 employees), one of Greece’s largest industries after retail, signed a new two-year collective agreement on 17 March. The text, effective from 1 April 2026...
3
France: La Poste to launch negotiations for an AI agreement
Following the lead of firms such as Axa, Syensqo globally, and more recently CDC Habitat, La Poste group management will open negotiations on an AI regulation agreement during the first half of...
4
France: Club Med includes “multiculturalism” in its professional equality agreement
In December 2025, Club Med and the CFTC, Unsa, and FO trade unions signed an agreement on professional equality and working conditions. It introduces measures addressing AI, pay transparency, and...
23 March 2026
5
Germany: crisis and transformation wage agreement in the chemical sector
Following a two-day marathon negotiation in Bad Breisig (Western Germany), the social partners of the German chemical and pharmaceutical industries—the IG BCE trade union and the BAVC employers'...
27 March 2026
6
France: bioMérieux’s new disability agreement pivots towards mental health
The news. On 6 January 2026, bioMérieux—an in vitro diagnostics specialist employing 4,400 people in France—signed a new four-year agreement “relating to the employment...