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Germany: new head of metal employers’ organization wants to commit to an even more flexible labor market
September 14 was the transfer of power between the former and the new President of the German association of metal industries.  “He knows the metal and electrical engineering industry, he knows...
Great Britain: new benchmark on FTSE wellbeing
Confrontation tool.  Business in the Community (BITC) is an association that promotes responsible business practices.  It launched a new benchmark which will measure all FTSE 100 companies...
27 September 2012
Germany: government adopts bill improving “Riester” funded pension schemes
Make up for the wearing out of statutory retirement.  Ten years ago, the red-green Gerhard Schröder administration caused a sensation by introducing a funded supplementary pension scheme in the...
OHL: Spanish construction firm signs international framework agreement on workers’ rights and union freedoms
An agreement negotiated by the Fecoma-CCOO and MCA-UGT unions.  The agreement was negotiated and signed at the request of the Fecoma-CCOO and MCA-UGT Spanish unions representing the BWI in Spain. ...
26 September 2012
Portugal: mobilization drives government to give up amending social contributions but taxes will rise
Single social tax.  The Single Social Tax (TSU) on workers’ income should have increased by 7 percentage points, from 11 up to 18 percent, on January 1, 2013.  At the same time, employers’ TSU...
25 September 2012
Great Britain: employment appeal tribunal activities down 15 percent
15 percent decrease.  The number of cases accepted by employment tribunals decreased by 15 percent in one year according to statistics from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 recently published by...
EU: ECJ to rule on new case on fixed-term contracts, this time about union rights
Facts.  The interested party worked for a Greek Ministry under a private law contract and a special status.  As a union member, he was authorized to take 34 days’ union leave, for which he wasn’t...
Italy: chemical/pharmaceutical social partners renew national collective agreement
All the organizations said they were satisfied with the agreement renewing the collective agreement in the chemical/pharmaceutical industry, signed in Rome on September 22, after only 5 days of...
France: government invites businesses to boost CSR dynamic
In its roadmap on the green transition, an extension of the environmental conference, the government encourages listed and non-listed businesses to take CSR initiatives.
24 September 2012
Spain: beyond statutory requirements, businesses take innovative equal opportunity measures
Reminder.  Spain adopted this law (see our dispatch No. 070315) drawing upon two European directives (2002/173 and 2004/113) on equal opportunities. As a general rule, large companies (250...
24 September 2012
Great Britain: active paying members of private sector workplace pension schemes at its lowest level
According to the ONS, the number of active paying members of private sector workplace pension schemes has fallen to its lowest level since records began almost 60 years ago. There are now just 2.9...
Germany: Bundesrat votes Act introducing fixed quotas for women on supervisory boards
On September 21, everyone thought the Bundesrat was going to vote a bill on the introduction of universal minimum wage.  But it was postponed as right-wing and left-wing parties alike wanted to...
Norway: new agreement removes the threat of third strike in oil drilling
Hard to reach an agreement.  “We’re happy we’ve reached an agreement, which is a positive foundation for future collaboration” declared Håvard Hauan, OLF’s attorney.  The negotiations were tough...
Italy: unitary agreement at Golden Lady delays the application of the labor market reform provision imposing the transformation of atypical contracts into permanent ones
Reasons and consequences.  “We wanted to give our support to a well-ordered recruitment system with subservient contracts.  Indeed, transforming these contracts at once was not possible from an...
Siemens: after Siemens US violated the international CSR agreement in North East, Maryland, the social partners involved are talking about the new path to take
Breach of the CSR IFA.  How can you launch a campaign against the creation of an employee representation structure in a plant in August and sign a global framework agreement on corporate social...
Poland: ongoing negotiations between the social partners to review some Labor Code provisions
The tentative changes to the Labor Code provisions on working time which the government presented are based on the work the social partners have done in recent months.  The following provisions...
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Italy: decree-law adopted to increase workplace safety
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mind RH analysis – Initial findings from CSRD social indicators
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