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Australia: unions are looking for alternatives to the possibility of 7,000 job cuts in two years in the banking sector
Layoffs in spite of profit.  most key banks in Australia, such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Australian and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), the National Australia Bank, Westpac or...
31 January 2012
Portugal: new management for the CGTP confederation and left-wing intensification
End of a 25-year term.  Manuel Carvalho da Silva put an end to his job as CGTP general secretary during the union’s 12th Congress on January 28-29, concerned by the age limit (62) imposed by the...
Great Britain: new timetable for the implementation of mandatory automatic enrolment of employees to company pension funds
Schedule.  Here is the new timetable for the enforcement if the regulation on professional pension schemes (see our dispatch No.  110043), announced by the Department of Labor on January 25...
Germany: Lufthansa and Verdi sign a variable geometry collective agreement with a 3.5 percent wage increase
The agreement presented by Lufthansa and the German services union and the negotiations that led to it are symbolic of the way collective negotiations are evolving in German businesses.  At...
Italy: wave of social movements against the government’s measures
“Success.”  This is how the USB (Unione Sindacale di Base) qualified the first general strike organized by the independent unions – Usb, Orsa, SlaiCobas, Cib-Unicobas, Snater, SiCobas and Usi –...
Alstom: European agreement on social commitments during the transition period of the joint venture between Alstom and Shanghai Electric
ederation (EMF) and Alstom management have already signed European agreements concerning social guarantees within the framework of an operation likely to have an impact on employment. In a new...
EU: ECJ makes first breach to European laws on fixed-term contracts by allowing the renewal of fixed-term contracts for permanent needs
The prejudicial question asked by Germany came from an employee, Bianca Kücük, who signed, with the same employer, 13 successive fixed-term contracts over a period of 11 years, to replace...
United States: blow to collective bargaining in Indiana
Even though the State’s House Democrats boycotted the debates for nearly 20 days, Indiana will soon be the 23rd State to pass a “right-to-work” Act limiting unions’ power.  On Wednesday, January...
27 January 2012
Germany: lobbied by its members, the IG-Metall is calling for a 6.5-7 percent wage increase
6.5 percent increase, adjustment included.  “In the coming weeks, golden reports and record results are going to be released.  Employees are simply asking for a fair share of what was made...
Spain: revisiting the 2nd agreement on employment and collective bargaining 2012, 2013 and 2014
The key points of the agreement were revealed the day before (see our dispatch No.  120054).  It contains the commitment to major wage moderation, with wage increases which won’t exceed 0.5...
Germany: with the constant regulation of temporary work, businesses are increasingly turning to subcontracting in all sector
The “new disease of the employment market.”  450 customs agents took part, on Tuesday, January 24, in a major police raid in several logistic centers and offices belonging to Kaufland (Schwarz...
26 January 2012
Germany: agreement on employment reduction without layoffs at EON
No layoffs.  Opened in November 2011, the difficult negotiations on the social plan coming along the thousands of job cuttings announced by EON were finally completed on Tuesday, January 24. ...
26 January 2012
EU: ECJ renders new ruling channeling its case-law on entitlement to paid annual leave during sick leave
Facts.  The prejudicial question came after a conflict between the claimant and her employer as regards the calculation of her paid leave during a leave of absence.  Indeed, following an accident...
United States: lock-outs are back
American businesses are renewing with an old weapon: lockouts, i.e. the management ordering the temporary closure of a plant.  American Crystal Sugar, a world-class agricultural cooperative...
Spain: unions and employers sign a series of agreements preparing for the labor market reform
Two weeks after acknowledging the impossibility to achieve the negotiations within the deadline given by the government to prepare the labor market reform, the social partners reached a partial...
Great Britain: government will transpose parental leave European directive in 2013 instead of 2012
, which must be transposed by March 8, 2012, will only be implemented in March 2013 in the UK. The reason given is that it will be included in a new, more flexible policy on parental leave...
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Italy: collective agreement for rubber and plastics sector focuses on new skills
A month ahead of schedule, the Federazione Gomma Plastica employers' organisation and the Filctem-Cgil, Femca-Cisl and Uiltec trade unions have renewed the collective agreement for the rubber and...
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France: social partner talks extend far beyond contractual terminations
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12 January 2026