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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...
Netherlands: large chocolate producers and retailers commit, with FNV, in favor of “sustainable chocolate”
FNV and Allies general secretary Henk van der Kolk launched this unprecedented initiative, in the form of a “memorandum of understanding” (MoU). This document, which wants Dutch people to only...
5 March 2010
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: a high-tension start to the social and political year
The German government must finalize its major reforms (pension funding, corporate competitiveness, and labor law) while the chancellor’s popularity hits an all-time low and three regional...
5
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
6
Sweden: IF Metall union forced to end industrial dispute with Tesla
The news. After three years of conflict, the Swedish union IF Metall announced it would suspend its strike actions against Tesla starting Wednesday, August 19, after the American automaker...