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EU: MEPs’ vote on maternity leave postponed
Cost of the measures. The vote for Mrs. Estrela’s report, planed on March 24, was delayed. The MEPs will simply debate on the draft report adopted on February 23 (see our dispatch No. 100173) by...
Romania: construction unions and employers bargain for their next social agreement, providing a rare example of social partnership in the country
Negotiations are at full steam between Romanian construction unions and employers to set the bases for the next social agreement governing the SADEC in 2010-13. System of Sectoral Self-regulation...
EU: more and more alternative individual dispute resolution systems
Two groups of countries. Eurofound, which bases this analysis on information provided for by its local partners, divides the countries into two categories. The first includes countries where...
Great Britain: unions and associations call for clearer employment statuses to protect vulnerable workers
Two complicated employment statuses. The first problem is the definition of the employment status in labor law. The rights and protection of people working in the UK vary with their status...
Denmark: agreement between SAS and cabin crew to help the company implement its saving program
The Scandinavian airline launched, in January 2009, a savings program to face the decline of the air market and obtained substantial wage concessions from unions (see our dispatch No. 090077)...
Netherlands: limited extension of short-time working
Right now, over 40,000 employees are on short-time working (Deeltijd WW), a system introduced in early 2009 to face the crisis. The new, temporary extension of this measure will be the last. After...
Deutsche Telekom: the German telephone operator introduced a 30% quota of women for its worldwide management
Deutsche Telekom (DTAG) is the first company among the DAX – the Frankfurt stock market – to introduce a quota of women for its supervisory staff, in a country where public authorities have, so...
15 March 2010
Italy: CGIL announces 1 million participants to its March 12 general strike
Noting a four-hour strike in the private sector and an eight-hour strike in the public sector, on Friday, March 12, “exceeded its expectations,” the CGIL announced that one million people took...
Corporate practices: AstraZeneca’s policy for preventing illnesses and accidents banks on one-on-one coaching
The company’s motives. The department in charge of production for AstraZeneca in Sweden was worried about the increased number of accidents and occupational diseases on the sites. The problem was...
15 March 2010
Belgium: productivity bonuses taking hold in businesses
Heterogeneous award of the bonuses. To motivate their collaborators, businesses increasingly appeal to the system of “non-recurring productivity-based incentives” – the official name given to the...
Netherlands: extension of short-time working in exchange for wage moderation
On March 11, Piet Hein Donner, Minister for Social Affairs and Labor, met with the social partners to propose the following agreement: extending short-time working (Deeltijd WV-v, see our dispatch...
Italy: social partners sign joint opinion on arbitration following reactions to the decree-law reforming labor disputes
On march 11th, at the Ministry of Labor, all the social partners except the CGIL signed a joint opinion on arbitration, easier to appeal to with the decree-law recently passed by the Senate (see...
Spain: GM and Opel’s unions reach an agreement
This outline agreement was concluded on the night of March 11th, after a marathon 10-hour meeting supervised by the regional administration of Aragon. This agreement should celebrate the end of...
Germany: Federal Labor Court establishes the principle of equal treatment regarding corporate supplementary pension schemes
Abolishing status differences between employees. By giving satisfaction to a retired worker from Ford Deutschland, the BAG’s ruling (Ref. 3 AZR 216/09) clearly established equal treatment...
Denmark: new CCN in the building sector provides for various means to fight against social dumping
The managing director of the Dansk Byggeri employers’ association, Lars Storr-Hansen, emphasized that the agreement for the renewal of the building sector’s CCN, was signed on Friday, March 5th...
Italy: 15th national Uil union congress announces a “reformist future”
Between March 2 and march 4, the trade union held, in Rome, its 15th national congress under the watchword: “Uil, a reformist future.” On March 5th, it celebrated its 60th birthday. Over 1,200...
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: Decathlon introduces a ‘duty to respect others’ right to disconnect’
A right-to-disconnect agreement was signed in late September for the French arm of the Decathlon sports retail group. It sets out a "duty to respect others’ right to disconnect" and provides...
14 November 2025
2
Netherlands: ING cites AI as it plans to cut around 950 jobs
Dutch bank ING has informed the employment agency UWV that it may cut around 950 jobs by 31 December 2026. In its notification on 20 October, the lender said the planned reductions stem partly...
30 October 2025
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United Kingdom largely retained within scope of EWCs despite Brexit, study shows
A study published this month by the Institute for Economic and Social Research, the French trade union research organisation, examined how the involvement of British representatives in European...
4
Romania: collective agreement extended to entire insurance sector
On 3 November, Romania’s National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue approved the extension of the collective labour agreement signed on 23 May by the Confederation of Employers in the...
5
Italy: new collective agreement for managers in tertiary sector
On 5 November, the ManagerItalia union and the employers’ association Confcommercio renewed the collective agreement for managers in Italy’s tertiary, distribution and services...
6
Germany: legal battle at Tesla ahead of works council election
The Frankfurt/Oder labour court has postponed a mid-November hearing in the case between the IG Metall union and Michaela Schmitz, employee representative and head of the works council at the...