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Spain: CCOO define guidelines for the future
The text presented to the union’s federal council by Ignacio Fernandez Toxo was approved by 139 votes for and 16 abstentions on May 12th.  Key points Toxo mentioned included information about the...
Poland: Ministry of Labor says action plan for senior employment is bearing fruit
The government’s flagship program, “Generational solidarity – action plan to increase the professional activity of people over 50”, was adopted in October 2008 (see our dispatch No.  080365).  It...
EU: 12th ETUC Congress matches European trade union solidarity against governments’ national withdrawal
Solidarity and future ETUC role.  As Workers’ Commissions’ Javier Doz summed up, “Europe is distressed with the rise of nationalism but it doesn’t seem to affect the union movement.”  And this was...
Great Britain: end of the dispute between British Airways and the Unite union
The dispute began in 2009 over the imposition of cuts to cabin crew staffing levels. The union opposed both the cuts and their unilateral imposition. Despite the initial gaining of an injunction...
Italy: decree on early retirement for work hardness published in the Official Journal
Novelties.  The new regulations determine the list of hard jobs which include, among other things, night work in some circumstances*, work in narrow spaces, in galleries, mines, high temperatures...
Sodexo: mass catering company and SEIU union settle accounts through legal action
SEIU action.  The case brought to the NLRB concerns events that took place in February and May 2010 in the kitchens of the Tulane and Loyola universities, when SEIU representatives were trying to...
Spain: wage cuts and mobility, first pitfalls in the negotiations for the new collective agreement in the savings bank industry
With the current inflation forecasts, employers’ offer would mean a 1% pay cut as of 2011, which would have repercussions on the following years.  Union representatives said this offer was...
Denmark: removal of the 30-year limit between exposure to dangerous substances and the signs of occupational diseases for compensation requests
“We worked for the removal of this unfair limit to the compensation of occupational diseases.  We succeeded, solely because of the massive pressure we, LO and other union put on the government.” ...
Italy: Inail’s occupational medicine department publishes “White Paper on exposure to nanomaterials and their impact on workers’ health and safety”
In Italy, nearly 200 structures (57% public and 43% private) are engaged in R&D for nanotechnologies.  In 2008, around 670,000 people were said to be working in microelectronics, chemistry...
United States: rebirth for the National Labor Relations Board
The amendment passed in Arizona recognizes only secret ballot elections as the means for representation elections and prohibits a process known as “card check” with which a majority of employees...
Germany: federal government prepares global concept followed by government summit against the lack of skilled workers
Challenge of global recruitment policy faced with the shortage.  More than its content, what’s new is the mere existence of the “Concept against the lack of skilled workers” and the announcement...
EU: ETUC 12th Congress to open in Athens on may 16th
Representatives from 82 organizations and 12 sectoral federations from 36 European countries, representing about 60 million members, are expected on May 16th in Athens, a few days after the 10th...
Spain: adoption of the Act transposing the new EWC directive
Linking the different levels.  This is the key novelty introduced by the Spanish MPs: since the EU directive leaves the Member States free to determine the link between the different levels of...
Italy: Cisl and Uil union confederations get closer
The Cisl and Uil’s confederal secretariats met on May 5th for “joint confrontation on the most important themes of the labor world, with an economic situation characterized by recovery that goes...
Great Britain: government announces next steps in labor law simplification
Flexible labor law.  Since it came to power, the coalition government has been making labor law more flexible to support growth and remove obstacles to businesses’ development.  As part of the...
Germany: employees’ productivity keeps increasing with age (Study)
11,000 employees followed for three years.  To carry out the study entitled “Productivity and age: Evidence from work teams at the assembly line”(see the full version in English below), the MEA’s...
11 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
Italy: Enel signs agreement to manage the effects of AI on work
An agreement signed at the end of July by the electricity company Enel (31,000 employees) and the unions Filctem-Cgil, Flaei-Cisl, and Uiltec is pioneering in the Italian energy sector. It aims to...
7 September 2026
2
Italy: artificial Intelligence on the menu of Barilla’s new company agreement
Prior consultation with trade unions on innovations related to artificial intelligence, strengthened training, and progress on parenthood: these are the main new features of the agreement signed...
2 September 2026
3
France: final document on the work of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference
After six months of discussions between French social partners, the guarantors of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference submitted the conclusions of the discussions to the Prime Minister...
17 September 2026
4
Germany: working time dispute between Mercedes and the IG Metall Union
The news. At the beginning of September, Mercedes-Benz asked employee representatives and the IG Metall union to agree to an increase in the weekly working time from 35 to 40 hours, without any...
16 September 2026
5
EU: insurance sector social partners commit to addressing violence and harassment at work
The news. The trade union UNI Europa Finance and the employers’ federations Insurance Europe, Amice and Bipar signed an addendum to their 2022 joint declaration on diversity and inclusion on...
18 September 2026
6
Germany: major day of union action in the automotive industry ahead of collective bargaining
A few weeks before the start of collective bargaining in the German metalworking sector, the IG Metall trade union mobilised nearly 175,000 workers across more than 200 industrial sites on 21...
22 September 2026