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Italy: negotiations between Fiat and unions for the group’s new collective agreement start with an incident with the Fiom-CGIL union
Negotiations for the new national collective agreement of Fiat after it left Confindustria (see our dispatch No.  110720) is off to a rough start for the Fiom.  Its leader, Maurizio Landini, left...
Austria: 3.6% increase for 520,000 trade employees
After 4 meetings and 16 hours negotiating, the social partners in Austrian trade reached an agreement on wages.  If they had failed, the GPA-dip union threatened to strike, as the start of the...
Netherlands: draft reform to let businesses derogate from collective agreements when they have problems
The goal is to avoid bankruptcies with the recession announced for 2012.  The point is to make sure that the weakest businesses are not bound by the sectoral agreements negotiated annually.  The...
29 November 2011
Great Britain: government paves the way for simpler health and safety regulations
 Reducing businesses’ burden.  In early 2011, the government started reforming occupational health and safety (see our dispatch No.  110189), mainly focusing on simpler regulations.  Professor...
International: ICEM international union federation holds last Conference before the creation of the big industry federation
Gathered for three days in the Argentinean capital, the 800 delegates representing about 200 affiliated union organizations elected Senzeni Zokwana (NUM, South Africa) and Manfred Warda as...
Switzerland: towards minimum wage at Confederation level?
Right and amount.  “In Geneva, people were afraid to vote for this right without knowing its definite amount” explained Giangiorgio Gargantini, representative of the SIT, the interprofessional...
Netherlands: split rumors within the FNV union organization
Apparently, a major rebellion is taking shape among the Netherlands’ key union federation, the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV, of a protestant persuasion).  Its three largest members...
Austria: 4.15% wage increase in the temporary sector
4.15% and new minimum wages.  65,000 Austrian agency workers are going to receive a 4.15% wage increase on January 1, 2012, for one year.  Regular bonuses will also be increased in the same...
EU: premises of European social dialogue in ICT SMEs
social partners – Uni Europa for employees and PIN-SME for SMEs – have been meeting. They are hoping to lay down the foundation for European social dialogue in the future, in a field...
Romania: employers and unions sign social agreement to engage in social dialogue irrespective of the public powers
organization, and the five trade union confederations lay down the foundation for social dialogue since they couldn’t be heard by the government. Thus, at the end of October, they signed a...
Portugal: unions demand the resumption of dialogue with the government after successful general strike
General strike.  The CGTP (close to the Communist Party) and the UGT (moderate) organized, on Thursday, November 24, a 24-hour general strike to reject the austerity measures provided for in the...
Denmark: government introduces draft pension reforms in Parliament
Transposing the agreement of May 13 (see our dispatch No.  110337) signed between the parties of the previous government – made up of the Conservative Party (Venstre Konservative) and of the...
Finland: after several months of tough negotiations, sectoral agreements are reached on the basis of the framework agreement the social partners signed in October at national level
Employers accepted to negotiate in the end and, after a few bumps when the talks were suspended, a deal was stricken on October 13.  In addition to political and union pressure, another element...
United States: retail employees denounce sacrificing Thanksgiving for Black Friday
employees have had to get up in the middle of the night between Thanksgiving and ‘Black Friday’ to open stores before dawn for the most important shopping day of the year, opening the...
24 November 2011
Great Britain: government releases draft Labor Law reform
ng more flexible layoffs in SMEs with 10 employees and less; reducing the consultation period for mass layoffs; introducing “protected conversations” between employees and employers;...
Companies: six telecom multinationals launch human rights initiative
g in telephony met to work together on Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility. These businesses are Teliasonera, Telenor, Vodafone, Telefonica, Nokia Siemens and Alcatel. Ewa...
23 November 2011
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...