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EU: employment in the automotive sector by 2020
1.5% of GDP. Accounting for 1.5% of the EU’s GDP, the auto industry employs about 2.4 million people, i.e. “6.5% of the total employed in manufacturing or just over 1% of total employed in the EU...
Austria: followers of the privatization of the Austrian railway (ÖBB) mobilized by the debate on railroaders’ pension scheme
by the Austrian Audit Authority, massive retirement, encouraged by the ÖBB, brought the annual allowance paid by the State for railroaders’ pensions from 1.2 billion euros up to 2.1...
Italy: government, social partners and regions sign agreement on guidelines for training in 2010
ramework agreement on training in 2010 – signed last week between the government, the social partners and the regions – affect the reorientation of training for jobseekers, workers in...
GDF Suez: European agreement on fundamental health and safety principles
Ad hoc negotiating body. This agreement was negotiated between the management and a special negotiating body composed of 31 representatives from 13 European countries, appointed by the trade union...
Great Britain: British Airways employees vote for a new strike
on February 22: 80.7% of the 11,700 cabin crew at British Airways decided to strike to protests against the management’s unilateral cost cutting policy. Unite is hoping that this threat is...
GDF Suez: European agreement on job and skills planning
F Suez, the special negotiating body and the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) signed, on February 23, a European agreement on job and skills planning. This agreement, drawing a...
Germany: Netto accepts works councils in all its subsidiaries
Agreement guaranteeing the election of WCs. For Ver.di, which has been fighting for years for better working conditions and improved employee representation among German discounting chains, the...
Belgium: social compromise to revive the Cockerill (Liege) steel basin
Integrated production. ArcelorMittal, Cockerill’s parent company, decided to revive integrated steel production in the Cockerill basin. The hot work sites closed in the spring because of the bad...
Poland: draft regulation to transpose the directive on the exposure of workers to artificial optical radiation
Scope of application. The draft regulation defines minimum requirements regarding limits to the exposure to optical radiation (ultraviolet, infrared and visible radiation). These limits apply to...
Great Britain: government proposes banning the deduction of travel expenses from minimum wage to protect low-paid agency workers
ndment to the Minimum Wage Act in order to ensure that employers who pay minimum wage won’t deduct travel or subsistence expenses from this amount – a widespread practice among...
Brazil: the debate on working time cuts is at a standstill
g pressure so MPs will vote the bill implementing the shorter work week (from 44 to 40 hours). However, employers’ representatives squarely refuse. The MPs, acting as mediators, propose...
Germany: Lidl wants minimum wage in retail trade
r in Germany, Lidl, requested, in an open letter published on February 17, 2010 in the German press, that the social partners in retail trade, a sector that employs 2.9 million people, 930,000 of...
Netherlands: bill forces employers to inform unions after 21 leaves negotiated with employees
or Labor and Social Affairs announced, on February 17, a new amendment to the law on information in the event of mass layoffs. Businesses will have to inform unions as they do for mass layoffs...
Italy: renewal at the center of the 14th Congress of the Uil’s metalworkers’ federation, Uilm
and “key decisions for the defense and improvement of working conditions,” including proposals on the reform of representativeness by the summer, the renewal of the union organization...
Germany: metal partners sign “historical” collective agreement on job security with a minimum wage increase
l and Gesamtmetall (employers) in the “pilot region,” North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) announced, on Thursday, February 18 in Düsseldorf, that they reached an agreement on wages and...
EU: retail employment market by 2020
ng into the European Commission’s sectoral analyses as part of its strategy, “New Jobs for New Skills.” By 2020, the employment market in retail will depend on the development of...
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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
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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...
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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...