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Lithuania: demonstrations against rising unemployment force government to open social dialogue
e crisis. As for the other two “Baltic tigers”, the economic slowdown was slightly felt as early as late 2006, together with strong inflation. After prosperous years, the country faces...
Renault: EWC expresses solidarity with Spanish workers
results for 2008, a delegation of Spanish employees went to Paris to express concern over their job’s future. The French car manufacturer’s EWC supported this approach in a...
EU: the European Metalworkers’ Federation presents its Manifesto for industrial policy
Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) published a “Manifesto for more and better industrial jobs.” This document, 12 pages long, details the federation’s view of necessary actions...
Germany: two studies drastically divided revive the debate on the protection against dismissals
Economy (IW), close to employers, and the Institute of Economic and Social Research of the Hans Blocker Foundation, close to unions, chose the same day to publish studies on the impact of the...
Germany: investment bankers at the Dresdner Kleinwort to press charges to get their bonus
essed a around €1 billion in their unit in 2008 – the managers of the Dresdner Kleinwort investment bank – a subsidiary of Dresdner Bank, bought by the Commerzbank in January...
12 February 2009
Ecuador: paternity leave introduced
vernment of Ecuador approved the introduction of a ten-day paternity leave. However, only workers in the public and private sector affiliated with the social security will be entitled to it, i.e...
Spain: controversy over employers’ proposal to create anti-crisis labor contracts
labor contract” with lower layoff pay was launched by the employers’ confederation of the Madrid region and used by Gerardo Diaz Ferran, leader of the CEOE employers’...
Netherlands: De Unie abandons the agreement negotiated by its internet branch for Polish agency workers
executives’ union, announced that it abandoned the collective agreement negotiated during the week end of February 1 by the Internetvakbond, its internet branch, together with the...
Germany: 25.000 jobs threatened in the machine making sector
10.000 job cuts after liquidations. The impact on employment should be very sizeable because, true spearhead of German exports, the machine and facilities construction sector is, so it says, the...
France: Brussels worried about the condition to maintain production in the country to give aid to the sector
10, Nelly Kroes, Commissioner for Competition, asked the French government to explain the plan to support the car industry presented to the press this week. She is worried about the guarantee to...
Areva: evaluation of the European project on the development of social dialogue via the framework agreement on equal opportunities
e ODEO (“Open dialogue through equal opportunities”) project, which includes Areva’s EWC bureau and management representatives, presented its final report to the European...
Spain: large businesses unwilling to negotiate equality plans in spite of the legal obligation
nforcement of the law on gender equality, the labor market is still resisting and very few businesses have developed equality plans or significantly increased the number of women within their...
Poland: statutes of the new Confederation of Metalworkers’ Unions published
The Confederation of Metalworkers' Unions, created on January 7 (see our dispatch No. 090038) published its statutes, formalizing this inter-union structure, aimed at representing member...
EU: calls for proposals to support social dialogue published
ished three calls for proposal aimed at supporting social dialogue with the co-funding of actions launched by the social partners. The call for proposals on information, consultation and the...
Netherlands: interview with professor Kees Cools on managers’ pay
It did not reach a consensus for three reasons. First of all, we would have been the first and only country in the world to accept such a general standard. And then we would have taken the risk of...
11 February 2009
Italy: bill reforming the right to strike in essential public services presented to unions
eshold for unions calling for a strike, prior declaration of individual participation to the strike, sanctions for those violating standards and a possible obligation to carry out a...
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1
Netherlands: new government seeks to “control” social costs
In his government policy statement to Parliament on 25 February, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten announced several measures designed to "control" social costs. Notably, he proposed raising the...
2
Spain: a bill to regulate internships
On 3 March, the Council of Ministers approved the bill on the “Status for persons undergoing non-professional practical training in companies”. The text limits the number of interns a company can...
3
EU: co-legislators aim to pivot European Globalisation Adjustment Fund towards restructuring anticipation
On 25 February, the Council of the EU and the Parliament reached an agreement on the Commission’s proposed regulation to expand the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). Under the...
4
Germany: launch of the “WE-Fair” alliance for binational training of skilled foreign workers
Germany continues to expand and diversify its initiatives to attract skilled foreign labour from outside the EU. In mid-March 2026, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development...
5
Block to slash workforce by nearly half
The news. In his latest shareholder letter, Jack Dorsey, CEO of payment service provider Block (formerly Square), announced plans to slash the company’s workforce “by nearly half, from...