All articles

Denmark: manufacturing social partners sign agreement renewing the collective agreement
“With this agreement, production stays in Denmark (…).  We would have liked more but the key for us and our members is that manufacturing jobs in the Danish industry have a future” declared Dansk...
Great Britain: Apprenticeship Week confirms the government’s strategy
Government commitment.  The Apprenticeship Week launched by Business Minister Vince Cable mobilized a certain number of businesses, industrial federations, universities and training centers.  Over...
13 February 2012
Spain: government adopts wide labor market reform
The reform, published in the Official Journal on Saturday, February 11, comes into force today, February 13, even if the Parliament has to sign it for it to be truly permanent.  Unions called for...
Romania: Electrolux employees on strike for two weeks
Conflict over the signature of a collective agreement.  Since January 24, the Romanian household appliance manufacturing plant owned by the Swedish group has been paralyzed.  Why?  Because 850...
Italy: Maschio Gaspardo Group signs agreement safeguarding jobs for the next three years
“We decided to reward our employees’ loyalty and commitment because, as our traditional slogan says, ‘Together Wins.’”  This is how Egidio Maschio, CEO and co-founder of Maschio Gaspardo*...
EU: first meeting of UNI-Europa’s EWC coordinator network
The coordinators’ role.  UNI-Europa’s EWC coordinator network is taking shape.  The idea isn’t new; for year, the federation has been willing to encourage exchanges between its representatives...
9 February 2012
Italy: Hewlett Packard Italiana signs new company agreement, 25 years after the last one
Workers unanimously approved the agreement, which will be in force between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014.  Here are the key provisions. 
Romania: new government sets employment as its priority
Calm people down.  Ease tensions and the social situation: that’s the mission for the new Romanian government.  On Monday, February 6, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, who used to be the leader of the...
France: the bill introducing social VAT and increasing the minimum number of apprentices in businesses was adopted
Social VAT.  This was one of the most controversial topics of the social summit of January 18 (see our dispatch No.  120027).  The measure aims to reduce labor costs by €13.2 billion in order to...
Italy: Banco Popolare introduces sabbatical to combine cost cutting and work-life balance requirements
This “agreement is particularly innovative because it combines banks’ need to save money and workers’ private demands.”  This is what Fabi’s Banco Popolare coordination said to define the...
8 February 2012
Germany: for the first time, the IG-Metall plans to put agency workers on strike
“Sectoral bonuses” for agency workers in the metal industry.  “We now represent agency workers on many sites (…).  Thus, in the spring, there will be a few actions involving temporary workers...
Spain: the social partners adjust the public system for out-of-court dispute settlement to new collective bargaining stakes
The agreement signed on February 7 aims to improve the role and intervention capability of the public mediation and arbitration system (SIMA), introduced at national level via an interconfederal...
France: focus on recent court rulings on the working time of managers following the Supreme Court decree invalidating the annual working days system in the chemical sector
preme Court rendered a decree where it states that the annual working days system introduced in the chemical industry does not provide enough guarantees regarding the right to time off. Thus...
EU: European social dialogue launched in the food and drink industry
This social dialogue committee was created after several recommendations by the High Level Group for the Competitiveness of the Agro Food Industry, organized by the European Commission in 2000. ...
Germany: researchers warn against the limitations of work-study training
The two sides of work-study training.  Work-study training, where theoretical training in a professional school is combined with practical training in a company for two to three years, is one of...
7 February 2012
Italy: the transformation of labor at Pirelli at the center of a play
“The factory is a delicate place of activities and relationships, contrast, but mostly dialogue and original syntheses.  (…) Representing its dynamics in the theater is a way of giving the public...
7 February 2012
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
France: sectors feel economic slowdown to differing degrees
The latest data on France’s occupational sectors (branches professionnelles), covering the year 2023, show how employment trends are shaping workplace dynamics. After a more favourable period for...
2
Germany: apprenticeship openings fall sharply in manufacturing and chemicals
From 1 January 2026, Dutch collective agreements for temporary employment agencies will alter the employment conditions of temp workers. Agencies will be required to pay these workers at least the...