All articles

Great Britain: skills councils for manufacturing employees extends
£600 per employee.  Last year, the “Women and Work” program developed by Cogent, still in its trial phase, aimed to help 100 women with their training of career development within an industrial...
Germany: not all employees are on the same boat as regards holiday bonuses
Extremely different holiday bonuses.  As an introduction, the WSI indicates that a great majority of German employees receive a holiday bonus, but that they are only entitled to it if it was...
Italy: Italian pension funds regulator (Covip) publishes annual report
On May 25th, the Covip presented its annual report on the evolution of supplementary pension schemes and the sector’s development prospects.  The rationalization of pension funds brought their...
Poland: increased protection against layoff for union representatives
Until now, union representatives whose contract was terminated in an unfair manner could only request damages.  Reinstatement (article 50.5) was only granted in a restricted way to pregnant women...
30 May 2011
OECD: guidelines for multinational enterprises updated
New context.  Started in June 2010 (see our dispatch No.  100374), the negotiations to update the OECD’s guidelines truly started in October.  In April, the representatives from 42 governments...
26 May 2011
South Africa: Walmart needs to give pledges of good practices to South African competition tribunal before taking over Massmart
Unions’ motivations.  In November 2010, Walmart made a takeover bid on the Massmart African retailer.  The latter runs 308 stores in 14 African countries such as Namibia, Tanzania, Ghana, Botswana...
Great Britain: Royal Mail employees vote for strike in London
79% of the members of the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) voted in favor of the strike, the union announced on May 23rd.  The reason is that three sorting centers and a delivery service are...
Spain: Telefónica reveals plan to cut staffing by 25% in five years
When an Employee Reduction Program (ERE) is applied, the employees affected receive unemployment benefits, for the first two years, and then their social contributions are funded by the public...
Germany: Verdi union torpedoes the social partners’ initiative to restore union unity in businesses with a law
Members’ rejection.  The unexpected decision made by Verdi’s Federal Committee (Gewerkschaftsrat) puts a sharp end to the initiative carried out since last summer by the central employers and...
International: unions accuse DHL of violating fundamental social rights
About 80 union representatives from the DHL, UPS, TNT, FedEx, DPD and Geopost companies from all over the world discussed, on Monday and Tuesday, the difficulties faced by the sector’s employees...
France: towards the introduction of mandatory bonuses for the employees of businesses with 50+ employees when dividends increase
Mandatory bonus.  In detail, this bonus will be mandatory in businesses with 50 employees and more, provided that a) they paid dividends to their shareholders and b) the amount of the dividends is...
26 May 2011
Spain: unions announce that they got 750,000 signatures to request a popular legislative initiative against the labor market reform
Five months later, they announced that they got 750,000 signatures (500,000 gathered by CCOO and 250,000 by UGT), i.e. 250,000 more than the 500,000 required to carry their bill through and have...
Denmark: industry is the first sector to get arbitration committee for equal pay disputes
For the 2010 collective agreements, the industry’ social partners agreed to make the LO and DA Confederations responsible for creating the Equal Pay Committee (ligelønsnævn, see our dispatch No. ...
Allianz SE: the management and the EWC sign a European agreement against stress
First major European project.  The agreement presented on May 5th has a double meaning for Allianz SE.  On the one hand, it is the official recognition of growing problems caused by the...
Italy: are Fiat Industrial’s unions more “united” than Fiat Auto’s?
“Uilm, Fimsic and UGL are responsible for a severe decision: by objecting that you can’t organize an RSU election with a closed factory, they prevented the electoral committee from determining the...
Spain: Telefónica shareholder pension schemes demand more socially responsible corporate policy
A first.  It’s the first time a Spanish pension fund has spoken this way, Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) wrote in a press release, pointing to the growing importance of socially responsible...
25 May 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
Germany: pensioners in work already common practice, study shows
As the German government steps up measures to encourage people to stay in work beyond the legal retirement age, a new study by the Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) – an independent...
2
Spain: government approves creation of ‘intern status’
The Spanish government has paved the way for the creation of a new status for "persons undergoing non-professional practical training in companies, institutions or public or private organisations...
3
France: social conference on labour and pensions to proceed without main employers’ group
The preparatory meeting ahead of the social conference on labour and pensions, which is set to decide on the pension system model and the funding thereof, was held on 4 November at France's labour...
4
Luxembourg: two pension reform bills submitted to parliament
After lengthy negotiations with the social partners, in mid-October the Luxembourg government submitted two bills to parliament aimed at reforming the pension system to ensure its long-term...
5
France: TotalEnergies steps up commitment on disability
On 9 October, French energy group TotalEnergies and all representative trade unions signed a new four-year agreement on disability inclusion. Taking effect on 1 January 2026, the deal aims to help...
6
Candice Guillot (Talan): “Our recruiters save just over 80 hours per year on administrative tasks thanks to AI”
Candice Guillot, group director of employee experience and HR performance at Talan (7,000 employees), outlines for mind RH her vision and strategy for introducing artificial intelligence at the...