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Belgium: new measures to combat social fraud in construction
Joint liability.  From now on, the contractor and subcontractor will be jointly responsible for paying minimum wage to the latter’s employees.  The contractor may ask for copies of the payroll...
Italy: Lombardy strikes deal with major universities to promote high training apprenticeship
Roberto Formigoni, President of Lombardy, signed, on October 18th, with the headmasters of the ten biggest universities in the region (Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano Bicocca, Università...
21 October 2011
Germany: anticipating coming difficulties, the social partners and the Democratic Party are asking for the extension of short-time working measures
Quick appeal to short-time working.  In two different declarations, the heads of German employers and trade unions asked that the Merkel administration extended the period during which businesses...
21 October 2011
Spain: union and employers’ organizations strike deal to unfreeze sectoral collective bargaining
tive agreements have been frozen for several years. Therefore, the UGT and Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) unions and the CEOE and Ceypme employers’ organizations signed an agreement to...
Germany: Airbus signs “Agreement for the Future” with job security until 2020
the Airbus social partners in Germany announced that they finally stroke a “complementary” collective agreement on working conditions and the organization of labor. After months of...
Germany: the crisis of bonuses Opel gave its works council revives the debate on the remuneration of employee representatives
Infringement to the WC Act.  It all started with an article published on October 15th in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily (FAZ) headlined: “Opel bribes employee representatives.”  The...
20 October 2011
Portugal: unions call for a general strike on November 24th against 2012 austerity measures
d to join forces against austerity and are calling for a general strike on November 24th. This date overlaps with the last reading of the tentative 2012 budget before the final vote on November...
GDF Suez: EWC renders negative opinion on the partnership with the CIC Chinese Sovereign wealth fund because of doubts on the CSR compatibility of the fund’s investments
stments a subject for EWCs? In any case, the EWC of GDF Suez rendered, on October 13th, a negative opinion on the plan to open the capital of its Gas exploration business (“Exploration et...
Austria: launch of collective negotiations for 520,000 trade employees
d in the Austrian trade on Wednesday, October 19th for 520,000 employees (280,000 for retail trade alone). The renegotiation of the biggest collective agreement in the country is arriving the day...
Spain: businesses say 2010 labor market reform is ineffective
85% of the people surveyed believe that the measures of the labor market reform, adopted in 2010 (see our dispatch No.  100669), brought about no significant changes to working conditions, and 60%...
France: the ordinance transposing the EWC (recast) Directive was published
Takeover bids.  As a general rule, the ordinance is quite close to the wording of the Directive, except that it introduces a provision, as it happens based on an existing rule for French works...
Denmark: social partners and institutions multiply initiatives for the occupational safety of young people
The goal of this initiative?  Focusing on the high accident rate among young people.  “We can see that young people and new employees have a higher accident rate than other groups of workers.  It...
Deutsche Bahn: German railway launches program at group level to increase the proportion of female employees
eutsche Bahn (DB) has set out clear objectives to increase the number of women in management over the next few years. And the railway company also concretely explained how it was going to do it...
19 October 2011
United States: former Wall Street banker advises American letter carriers union
Letter Carriers (NALC) asked Ron Bloom, restructurings expert, to help with the revitalization of the US Post Office. (Ref. 110627) In the US, the NALC recently hired Ron Bloom, restructurings...
AXA: interview of Guillaume Floquet and Daniel Vaulot, respectively Deputy Head of AXA Group Human Resources and EWC secretary, about the European agreement on anticipation
group to sign an agreement on the anticipation of change. Guillaume Floquet and Daniel Vaulot, respectively Global Head of Human Resources and Secretary of the European Works Council, are telling...
Austria: metalworkers get a 4.2% wage increase
aining, the metal social partners announced, this morning (October 18th), that they agreed on an average 4.2% wage increase for the sector’s 165,000 employees. It will come into force on...
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1
EU: MEPs demand directive on algorithmic management
Members of the European Parliament have called for a directive on algorithmic management. Such legislation would introduce obligations for companies to inform employees, assess health and safety...
17 December 2025
2
France: minimum wage to rise by 1.18% on 1 January
On 12 December, the French government announced a 1.18% increase in the minimum wage, taking effect on 1 January 2026. The pay level will rise from €1,802 to €1,823 gross per month (for...
16 December 2025
3
United Kingdom: Parliament finally passes Employment Rights Bill
The UK Labour government's flagship reform of employment rights was passed by both houses on 16 December after a turbulent parliamentary process. The bill introduces numerous changes to labour...
18 December 2025
4
Argentina: government unveils labour reform
Argentina's ultra-liberal president Javier Milei wants to "modernise labour" with a new reform that has been greeted with opposition from trade unions. Submitted to the Senate on 11 December, the...
6 January 2026
5
Spain: government wants 3.1% minimum wage hike
Spain's ministry of labour has informed the social partners of its intention to raise the minimum wage to €1,221 gross per month. This increase is expected to be approved by the Council of...
8 January 2026
6
France: parliament approves suspension of pension reform
On 16 December, MPs in France's National Assembly voted definitively on the social security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2026. Several of the measures adopted are of relevance to human resources...
17 December 2025