All articles

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...
Italy: the Democratic Party trying to reunite unions after the break on the reform of the conventional system
Walter Veltroni, leader of the democratic party, met, last night, with the three trade unions, CGIL, Cisl and Uil, after meeting with the employers' association Confindustria on October 2. The...
Spain: renewal of the collective agreement of the insurance sector
Employers and trade unions in the mutual and insurance sector signed, on October 1, a new collective agreement which will be in force until 2011. Signed by the Unespa, the Amat and the Asecore for...
Belgium: Belgian employers say the right to strike is not an absolute right
During the national day of action launched by the three Belgian trade union confederations CSC, FGTB and CGSLB, employers deplored this initiative which paralyzes public transportation and...
EU: the European Commission adopted a package on the reconciliation of professional and family life
On Friday, October 3, the European Commission adopted a series of measures on better work-life balance. In addition to the revision of the directive on maternity leaves (see our dispatch No...
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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...