All articles

Czech Republic: national railway reaches collective agreement for 2009
The management of the Czech Republic's largest employer, Ceske Drahy (Czech Railways) signed a company level collective agreement for 2009 with participating trade unions in mid-December, after...
Spain: a new general secretary for the Workers’ Commission
ge (see our dispatch No. 081011). After a tight vote, the representatives gathered for the 9th Congress elected, on Friday, December 19, Ignacio Fernando Toxo, until then number 2 in the union...
Poland: implementation of the reform of early retirement for arduous labor
On December 19, 2008, Polish MPs finally overrode the President's veto on the text a few days earlier, and implemented the reform on early retirement which considerable reduces the number of...
Germany: postal minimum wage ruled illegal by second instance
The regional administrative court of Berlin Brandenburg confirmed a ruling of first instance rendered in March 2008. According to the judges, the federal government may not impose the rate of...
Portugal: Portuguese regulations for partial unemployment
After looking at the Cassa Integrazione Guadagni in Italy (see our dispatch No. 080932), conventional possibilities to adjust working time in some cases in Slovenia (see our dispatch No. 081005)...
Brazil: businesses want more flexible labor laws to face the crisis
The Brazilian mining giant, Vale Do Rio Doce, took the lead of a protest movement requesting the government brings flexibility into labor law to face the production decline. Several Brazilian...
19 December 2008
Netherlands: over 100 applications for the new partial unemployment system
Employers and unions want to postpone to April 1, 2009 the deadline for companies which intend to appeal to the AVT (Arbeidstijdverkorting), the system for partial unemployment and assistance to...
Spain: focus on continuous and discontinuous partial unemployment
Mandatory consultation and administrative authorization. When circumstances arise which lead to a temporary reduction in work, employers may file a petition for authorization of lay-off. Any...
Austria: partial unemployment soaring and extended to temps
One of the EU's star pupils in terms of employment has registered a boom in partial unemployment measures and plans 30.000 dismissals by the end of January 2009. To soften the consequences, the...
Slovenia: social program of the new governmental coalition
e end of September 2008, the right-wing parties that formed the previous Government lost made way for a new collation of left-wing parties. Before appointing the new Government, the coalition...
France: increase of the partial unemployment compensation in January 2009
Whereas announcements of partial unemployment are increasingly numerous, especially in the auto sector, the French social partners gathered against a background of economic crisis on December 15...
EU: the European Parliament challenges the EU27 on working time
Within the framework of the agreement signed at the Council in June (see our dispatch No. 080482), the Member States agreed, after several years of blockade, to maintain the opt-out (the exception...
Germany: Porsche and Volkswagen’s works councils bury the hatchet
Porsche and Volkswagen's WCs, which have been fighting for almost a year and a half over the representation of VW's employees within Porsche Automobil Holding SE apparently put an end to their...
Austria: social conflicts defused at the Austrian post and telecom
The two social conflicts which threatened to ruin holidays for Austrians and for the new federal government were defused, both at the post and at Telekom Austria. The managements of the two...
Italy: bargaining for the collective agreement at Fiat comes up against the crisis which leads to the closing of all sites for partial unemployment
The first meeting for the renewal of the company agreement of the group Fiat (see our dispatch No. 080805) was held in Turin on December 16, 2008. This is the first time such negotiations took...
Netherlands: the government refuses mandatory registration for temp agencies
On December 12, 2008, a majority came out of Parliament in favor of mandatory registration for temporary work agencies but Piet Hein Donner, Minister for Social Affairs and Employment is opposed...
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: austerity measures proposed in social security financing bill for 2026
Limits on sick leave, the end of social security exemptions for apprentices, and the introduction of additional birth leave: the 2026 social security financing bill, presented to parliament on 14...
16 October 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
3
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...