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Bulgaria: unions ready to strike against the draft bill on collective bargaining
Unions threatened to launch a general strike in the spring if Parliament adopts the draft bill on collective bargaining, which would establish a conciliation procedure before launching any...
Germany: the government launches a big training offensive
The federal government adopted, on January 9, 2008, a series of measures to improve training and vocational training in Germany. According to Annette Schavan, German Secretary of State for...
Great Britain: increasing unpaid overtime
According to the trade union confederation TUC, the number of employees working unpaid overtime has strongly increased in 2007. Unions are worried and want to launch a national campaign against...
EU: EWCs calling to the Commission’s attention about the content of the future amended directive on EWCs
Welcoming a possible modifications of the directive on European works' councils (see our article No. 071000,) several EWCs (Alcatel-Lucent, Chemtura, Italcementi and Securitas) sent Vladimir...
Spain: Nissan announced 450 job cuts in Barcelona
The management announced unions, on January 3, 450 jobs and 60 temp job cuts starting from April. Whereas during the past 5 years, Nissan was realizing record production in Spain, the manufacturer...
Hungary: judgment on the lawfulness of a strike under a valid collective agreement
According to the decision of the Metropolitan Court of Budapest, laid down last December 21, 2007, a strike lanched by the Independent Union of Rail Man (VDSZSZ) to request a compensation for...
Germany: employers dread tough tariffs for 2008
A few days before wage negotiations in the public sector start, which will be the beginning of a series of other negotiations, employers' organizations warned : too important tariff agreements...
Great Britain: agenda for labour law reforms
Several texts concerning labour law are coming into effect this year. They notably plan to toughen sanctions for non-respect of minimum wage, mostly for temp work agencies, employers' legal...
Belgium: several national collective agreements adopted
The national Labour Council approved, on December 20, 2007, a series of national collective agreements (CCT) and of judgments to enforce several parts of the interprofessional agreement for the...
Luxembourg: new collective agreement for the banking sector
After long and tough negotiations, the Association of Luxembourg's Banks and Bankers (ABBL) and the largest union in the sector, Aleba, signed, on December 28, a new collective agreement for the...
Spain: government and social partners signed a corporate social responsibility agreement
According to the agreement signed by the social dialogue follow-up commission, the government must create a CSR national committee, in which the most representative employers' and union...
7 January 2008
Spain: illegal workers have the right to strike
The Constitutional court gave illegal immigrants working in Spain the right to strike. It declared that the provision of the law on foreigners, which only grants the right to assemble and to...
EU: the Commission launches a consultation on the draft Guidelines on State aid for railway undertakings
The European Commission launched, on December 21, a consultation on draft guidelines to supervise State aid for railway undertakings. This document, now submitted to Member States and to the...
EU: social programme for the EU’s Slovenian presidency
The Slovenian presidency, which started on January 1 and is going to last for six months, presented its work programme. This first semester will mainly be dedicated to the beginning of a new cycle...
Germany: BMW announces several thousand job cuts from 2008
After Volkswagen (20.000 job cuts) and Mercedes-Benz (9.700,) it is now BMW's turn to announce several thousand job cuts. The company justifies the measure by the need to react to the dollar's...
France: more trades with labour shortages open to foreign workers
An interdepartmental circular letter sent on December 20, 2007 extends the list of trades with labour shortages opened to citizens from new EU Member States, bringing the number of these trades up...
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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
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...