All articles

Great Britain: sets a course to leave the EU
51.9% of the British population voted ‘No’ to Europe during an historic referendum, plunging the United Kingdom and its business community into a sea of uncertainty. Negotiations to exit the EU...
Germany: 5.3% wage rise over 24 months for the chemicals sector
Germany’s 550,000 chemicals employees will receive a 5.3% pay rise paid in two stages comprising first 3% then 2.3%. In exchange for the size of the rise the IG BCE union accepted spreading the...
Portugal: retail sector adopts a new collective agreement
Since 16 June, Portugal’s major retailers has a new collective agreement where workers will enjoy a 2% wage rise as well as arrangements to be implemented that will allow for equivalences between...
Italy: banking sector social partners negotiate a code of conduct
Following a series of scandals that have hit several of Italy’s banking institutions, negotiations commenced between the employers’ body ABI (Associazione Bancaria Italiana) and the sector’s...
Germany: more and more businesses are looking for new ways to attract apprentices
Germany’s businesses are doing more and more to attract apprenticeship candidates in a bid to fill a growing shortage. Measures including in-house internships, closer ties with the secondary and...
China: are changes in wages putting an end to cheap ‘Made-in-China’?
Thanks to a formerly cheap labor pool, crucial for building the ‘world factory’, China has become the world’s biggest manufacturing country making one fifth of the global manufacturing products...
Sweden: law on whistle-blowers (Visselblåsare) is finally adopted
On 08 June Sweden’s parliament adopted a draft law that was initially presented in May 2014 and that aims to bolster protection for whistle-blowers. The law is set to come into force on 01 January...
22 June 2016
EU: the ETUC calls for a framework directive on workers’ participation at board level
Between 08-09 June the ETUC Executive Committee adopted a resolution in favor of a directive enabling stronger arrangements in terms of both information and consultation and participation at board...
20 June 2016
Bulgaria: a new collective agreement for the tourism sector
On May 26, 2016 a new collective agreement for the Tourism branch was signed by the Bulgarian Tourist Chamber (BTC), on behalf of employers, and three trade unions, the National Federation ‘Trade...
India: amid much vacillating the government is set to relaunch law reforms
Two years after taking up power, India’s current center-right-wing BJP (nationalist Hindu Bharativa Janata Party) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) still hasn’t delivered on its labor...
20 June 2016
EU: European agreement over conflict minerals
The European Union will soon have new rules framing imports of conflict minerals that will include mandatory upstream responsibilities and voluntary downstream responsibilities.
17 June 2016
EU: the European Trade Union Confederation adopts a resolution on digitalization
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) believes that public authorities at all levels as well as the social partners should seek to shape digitalization so that it is not subject to the...
17 June 2016
EU: French and German legislation under fire over a requirement for foreign transport businesses to pay minimum wage levels
On 16 June the European Commission published its monthly infringements document, which this time sees France under fire for requiring foreign transportation operators to pay their workers France’s...
17 June 2016
Austria: social partners in the metals sector reach a landmark agreement over flexibility
On Wednesday 15 June in Vienna, Austria’s machinery and metal ware employers’ body the FMMI together with the PRO-GE (Industry) and GPA-dip (Private sector employees) unions presented an...
Italy: government studies formulae for combining early retirement with bank loans
A second meeting between unions and the government over retirement and jobs was held on 14 June and was the forum for labor Minister Giuliano Poletti to present the main thrusts of the APE project...
16 June 2016
Spain: CCOO union confederation wants to ‘rethink the union’
The CCOO union has started looking to its future. 350 people from both the union machine and the militant wings will come together on 21 June to examine the future of unionism as well as its much...
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1
Germany: government seeks to facilitate immigration of skilled Indian workers
During a visit to India earlier this week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz addressed the strategic importance of attracting Indian workers to Germany, signing a series of cooperation agreements...
2
Informal economy and slow wage growth hamper decent work, ILO says
The International Labour Organisation published its Employment ans Social Trends 2026 on 14 January. It anticipates unemployment stabilising in 2026 and employment growth of 1%, driven by...