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Germany: IG BCE chemistry union demands a higher wage increase than that secured for metalworkers
Very differentiated situation. This is the third large collective bargaining round this year, after metalworking and electrical engineering (see our dispatch No. 100156) and the civil service (see...
Areva, Alstom/Schneider Electric: European negotiation on social guarantees in the framework of the sale of Areva T&D
Social guarantees for T&D employees. The European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) received a unanimous mandate from its members present in the three companies affected by the operation. Thus...
EU: pending signature of the draft cross-industry agreement on inclusive labor markets
This framework agreement is “based on the principle that ensuring inclusive labor markets implies shared responsibilities of employers, individuals, workers, workers’ and employers’...
Belgium: Opel Antwerp unions want to look into the possibility to welcome part of the production from other subsidiaries while they find a final solution
m unions rejected their plant’s recovery plan as proposed by Opel. They want to postpone the shutdown of the factory, in exchange for production transfers from Germany and Poland to the...
Germany: union competition in the temporary sector leads to a high pay raise for employees
Union race. In fact, the BZA employers’ organization announced, on January 26, 2010, that it signed a collective agreement with the DGB for the approximately 200,000 employees of the BZA’s member...
Corporate practices: Pekkaniska, large Finnish lifting company, is paying employees to improve their health
Unions view the implementation of policies aimed to significantly improve quality of life at work as a necessary requirement for a possible agreement on the extension of careers. However, even...
10 March 2010
Poland: union and employers’ organizations are “renewing” their representativeness
Proven representativeness. Initially, the founding text for union representativeness – Act of July 6, 2001 regarding the tripartite committee and regional social dialog committees – recognized as...
Great Britain: Royal Mail unions and management sign an agreement on the company’s modernization
Voluntary leaves. After weeks of conflict, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), stepped in, in November, to act as a mediator between Royal Mail and the CWU (see our dispatch...
Italy: electricity social partners renew national collective agreement with a unitary agreement
“This is a major outcome, achieved thanks to the resoluteness of union organizations which, during these months of difficult negotiations with employers’ organizations and businesses in the...
EU: ILO thinks that the EU’s case law limiting the right to strike questions the freedom of association protected by international regulations
Facts. The comment of the ILO’s legal experts is included in the international organization’s 2010 report published in late February. It shows that, on October 22, 2008, a BALPA union went to the...
Great Britain: could businesses have to render accounts on the number of women with managing positions?
This government request is based on the draft Equality Bill currently discussed in Parliament, which will allow positive action in businesses to appoint more women to senior positions. If the...
Portugal: public aids for businesses training employees on short-time working will now be limited to some sensitive sectors
Objectives. The “Qualification-Employment” program contains measures to fight unemployment by financially supporting the employment/training rotation in the context of temporary reduction of...
EU: skills and environmental transition at the heart of the 2010 work program of the electricity social partners
Joint declaration. The EPSU, the EMCEF and Eurelectric opened, in 2009, talks around the issue of skills. A toolbox was created to anticipate the transition towards greener production with...
France: action plan to stop industry’s decline
After the Industry States General gathered, for several months, different roleplayers in manufacturing, the head of State presented, on march 4, an action plan to “redress the French industry...
EU: permanent adoption of the parental leave directive
This directive gives force of law to the agreement signed by the European social partners (UEAPME, BusinessEurope, CEEP for employers and ETUC for unions) on June 18, 2009, revising their former...
Italy: Senate permanently approves decree-law reforming labor disputes
“After a very long Parliamentary process, started with the Biagi Act (…), we can finally solve controversy in terms of labor via arbitration;” this is how Labor Minister Maurizio Sacconi presented...
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1
France: sectors feel economic slowdown to differing degrees
The latest data on France’s occupational sectors (branches professionnelles), covering the year 2023, show how employment trends are shaping workplace dynamics. After a more favourable period for...
2
Germany: apprenticeship openings fall sharply in manufacturing and chemicals
From 1 January 2026, Dutch collective agreements for temporary employment agencies will alter the employment conditions of temp workers. Agencies will be required to pay these workers at least the...