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Germany: Verdi and IG-Metall reject the collective agreement presented in January with the Association of Temporary Employers (BZA)
High competition between the social partners. The two big German unions, Ver.di and IG-Metall, may pay a very high price for their faux-pas in the temporary sector. This sector, which only truly...
Spain: metal sector prepares for negotiations for its first national collective agreement
According to CCOO, the metal sector most suffered from employers’ freeze on the revision of wage criteria in 2009 (see our dispatch No. 090617). The situation was even chaotic because of the...
EU: Community law doesn’t impose stronger protection against dismissal for staff representatives
Facts. The Danish legislation which transposes Directive 2002/14 on information and consultation at national level requires overriding reasons to be able to fire a staff representative. However...
Germany: Deutsche Telekom admits to 84 cases of “serious violations” of laws, banking secrecy and privacy
Most of the “serious law infringements” observed at Deutsche Telekom by the KPMG’s specialized investigators are related to personal screening actions, i.e. building up files on the private life...
EU: publication of calls for proposals 2010 to support social dialog
ished three calls for proposal to support social dialogue with the co-funding of actions launched by the social partners. The call for proposals on information, consultation and the participation...
Italy: anticrisis strategy at the center of the 3rd Congress of the Uilcem, the Uil’s chemistry-pharmacy, mining, energy and oil federation
The Unione Italiana Lavoratori della Chimica dell'Energia e del Manifatturiero (Uilcem, the Uil's chemical, pharmaceutical, mining, energy, oil, engineering, services, rubber-plastic, glass...
Corporate practices: BMW launches the “Produktionsystem 2017” project, assembly lines adapted to demographic ageing
All manufacturing firms on the old continent are now wondering the same thing: how can we keep improving production rhythm and quality with experienced but ageing workers? Bavarian carmaker BMW...
11 February 2010
Italy: government toughens sanctions against employers practicing sex discrimination at work
The decree-law of January 25, 2010, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 29 of February 5, transposes into Italian law the 2006 directive on the principle of equal treatment between men and...
EU: unions present joint recommendations for the negotiation or renegotiation of EWC agreements by June 2011
The EMF, EMCEF, ETUF-TCL, UNI-Europa, EPSU, EFFAT, EFBWW and FET published, on Tuesday, February 9, joint recommendations to guide the members of special negotiating bodies and EWCs during the...
Belgium: social agreement on the introduction of assistants in the Post
“Low cost.” On Tuesday, February 9, the Belgian post revealed to its employees its objectives for 2010, the transition year before the complete liberalization of the postal sector in 2011. After...
Spain: details of the framework agreement on collective bargaining 2010-12
Here are the guidelines of the agreement the union and employers’ organizations signed on February 9 (see our dispatch No. 100120).
Finland: social partners can’t agree on solutions to guarantee the future of pensions
Work longer in exchange for better standards of living at work. Faced with the outcry caused by its decision to bring retirement age from 63 to 65 (see our dispatch No. 090251), Prime Minister...
EU: employment market in computer and optical products by 2020
Imports. Even though, in 2006, the computer and optical products sector reaped in €154 billion in profit, the report ordered by the European Commission shows that, over the last decade, imports...
Belgium: different types of leaves booming
More types of leaves and more beneficiaries. Leave for imperative reason, time credit, leave to care for a very sick parent, maternity leave, paternity leave, breastfeeding leave… there are more...
Spain: employers and union organizations reach an agreement unfreezing collective bargaining for 2010-2012
1% increase in 2010. The agreement signed on February 8 by Gerardo Diaz Ferran for the CEOE employers’ organization, Ignacio Fernandez Toxo for Workers’ Commissions and Candido Mendez for UGT was...
Great Britain: end of the consultation on the transposition of the new EWC directive
Scope. The consultation document notes that the 1999 Regulations will continue to apply but with amendments. Besides, it excludes some agreements from the scope of the new directive: pre-existing...
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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...