All articles

Denmark: non-hiring clauses are legal if the employer gets the employees’ consent
Danish companies must now get the written consent of the employees concerned for non-hiring clauses (jobklausuler) to be valid, says a new law enforced on July 1, 2008. Unions wanted these clause...
Argentina: the pay gap between employees and executives is reducing
The maximum pay difference between employees at the bottom of the scale and the senior executive of the same company was almost divided by half since the 1990s. In some businesses, this reduction...
Italy: the referendum organized by the Fiom denouncing an agreement on the restructuring of Alenia Aeronavali failed
On September 9-11, 2008, the Fiom organized, on all the sites of Alenia Aeronavali (a company with a workforce of 1.300 belonging to the group Finmeccanica), a referendum to rescind the separate...
EU: the ETUC wants a social progress clause in the EU Treaty
On the eve of the "Forum on workers' rights and economic freedoms" organized by the European Commission today, October 9, the European trade union confederation (ETUC) repeated its request for a...
Netherlands: employees’ contribution to unemployment insurance removed
A social agreement, presented as "unique"; was signed on October 7, 2008 during the traditional fall negotiations between the social partners and the government. The Federation of Dutch trade...
EU: the European MPs of the employment commission have adopted the common position of the Council of Ministers on temporary work
The Portuguese presidency had decided, in 2007, to link the draft proposals on temporary work and working time to get them out of the blockage where they had remained too long in the Council. The...
Germany: Opel temporarily closes its Bochum and Eisenach factories
Hit by the financial crisis, several car manufacturers, including Opel, Daimler, Ford and BMW, reduced their production in Germany. On Opel's site in Bochum, the flow line was stopped for two...
Spain: non-European immigrants entitled to receive full unemployment benefits if they return to their country
A decree-law, enforced on September 20, aims at encouraging unemployment aliens to return to their country of origin by enabling them to receive the whole amount of the unemployment benefits to...
France: the Supreme Court renders two rulings on restructurings in transnational groups
Two decisions rendered on September 23, 2008 by the French Supreme Court illustrate the possibilities, but also the limits, of European laws on restructurings. In one of the cases, the high court...
Denmark: the LO union published a manual on CSR for staff representatives
The demand for the social responsibility of all partners (customers, investors, colleagues...) is gaining ground in Denmark. Considering that unions have an important role to play in this context...
8 October 2008
Great Britain: employees are still stressed out
It has been four yearssince the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) proposed tools for the management of stress at work to companies. However, employees' working conditions hardly changed or even...
Netherlands: Unilever helps former employees open up their business
Former Unilever employees working at the Delft, Loosdrecht and Vlaardingen factories, which are soon going to close, launched, on September 29, 2008, a new packing company. The group helped with...
Germany: Ver.di union wants repayment clauses in the rescue plan of the Hypo Real Estate bank
According to the services' union, Ver.di, the call recently launched by the European trade union federation UNI Europa Finance, inviting financial groups to call their EWCs in for an extraordinary...
EU: Spanish Parliament opposed to the draft working time directive
The Spanish Parliament sent to European Parliamentary groups the text, voted unanimously in Madrid on September 19, denouncing "a clear step backwards regarding the protection of workers' social...
Chile: quality label guaranteeing the respect of gender equality at work to be issued to companies from 2009
While the government is preparing a law for pay equality, the institution in charge of defending women's rights (Sernam, Servicio nacional de la mujer) will award a distinction to private and...
Germany: the record increase of sickness insurance raises controversy
During a new summit meeting after several months of break, the parties of the Grand Coalition agreed, on October 5, 2008, on a major increase of sickness insurance which will amount, from January...
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1
Germany: pensioners in work already common practice, study shows
As the German government steps up measures to encourage people to stay in work beyond the legal retirement age, a new study by the Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) – an independent...
2
Spain: government approves creation of ‘intern status’
The Spanish government has paved the way for the creation of a new status for "persons undergoing non-professional practical training in companies, institutions or public or private organisations...
3
France: social conference on labour and pensions to proceed without main employers’ group
The preparatory meeting ahead of the social conference on labour and pensions, which is set to decide on the pension system model and the funding thereof, was held on 4 November at France's labour...
4
Luxembourg: two pension reform bills submitted to parliament
After lengthy negotiations with the social partners, in mid-October the Luxembourg government submitted two bills to parliament aimed at reforming the pension system to ensure its long-term...
5
Candice Guillot (Talan): “Our recruiters save just over 80 hours per year on administrative tasks thanks to AI”
Candice Guillot, group director of employee experience and HR performance at Talan (7,000 employees), outlines for mind RH her vision and strategy for introducing artificial intelligence at the...