Great Britain: Atom Bank adopts a four-day working week without cutting pay
Since 10 November, the UK online bank Atom Bank has been offering its 430 employees the opportunity to work 34 hours a week, over four days, while keeping the same salary. The group's aim is to...
1 December 2021
Great Britain: finnCap allows employees unlimited holidays so as to avoid burnout
Following in the footsteps of American tech companies such as Netflix, the London-based financial group finnCap announced on 18 November that it intended changing its holiday policy so that in...
25 November 2021
Saint-Gobain: a group HR policy driving an ambitious recruitment campaign
In view of the growing market for sustainable construction, the French multinational construction materials group is targeting annual growth of between 3% and 5% over the period 2021-2025. To...
23 November 2021
Germany: Volkswagen allows up to four days of teleworking per week
The German car manufacturer has signed a new agreement with its central works council framing the implementation of remote working arrangements. Entitled ‘Remote work – Restart’, it updates and...
18 November 2021
Great Britain: Marks & Spencer offering employees individual pronoun badges
Employees at the UK supermarket chain, Marks & Spencer (M&S), can choose to wear a badge specifying the personal pronouns with which they wish to be identified. M&S that recently...
18 November 2021
Hybrid work: contours of work organisation patterns post the Covid-19 pandemic are starting to take shape
Between 2 and 5 days of teleworking per week. While the health crisis has spurred the implementation of telework and led to new work organisation agreements being signed in 2021, and particularly...
17 November 2021
Germany: 3 days of telework per week and €1,000 allowance at Deutsche Bank
After much procrastination, Deutsche Bank and its central works council (Gesamtbetriebsrat) have together reached an agreement for implementing hybrid working. This framework agreement allows...
16 November 2021
United Kingdom: law firm Stephenson Harwood launches electric car scheme for staff
In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from next year, as encouraged by the draft resolution from the COP26 climate change summit, UK-headquartered law firm Stephenson Harwood has announced...
15 November 2021
Great Britain: government looks to further improve female representation in the upper rungs of FTSE companies
On 01 November, the UK government announced the establishment of a new five-year review called the FTSE Women Leaders Review. The overall ambition of the review is to increase female...
10 November 2021
Germany: companies looking to set up separate canteen areas for Covid vaccinated and recovered employees
In contrast with Italy and Austria, Germany has so far chosen not to make the health pass at work a mandatory requirement. However, several German employers have nonetheless decided to take the...
UN: draft Treaty on corporate accountability for human rights violations still stalled
Continuing the process launched in 2014, the open-ended intergovernmental working group under the aegis of the UN met in Geneva, between 25-29 October for a 7th session of negotiations to...
4 November 2021
India: IT giants planning their moves toward hybrid work
As IT companies start calling staff to return to on-site working, as the remote working measures that had been necessitated by  the coronavirus pandemic taper off, their thoughts are also turning...
3 November 2021
Netherlands: Ikea introduces paid leave for transgender employees undergoing a gender transition program
Ikea has reached a one-year ‘inclusive’ collective bargaining agreement with the FNV trade union (01 October 2021 – 31 August 2022), which is designed to reduce differences...
2 November 2021
Great Britain: retail sector calls for a law to prevent all forms of abuse in subcontracting activities
Tesco supermarkets, John Lewis and Primark stores, online retailer Asos, insurance company Aviva, food multinational Mondelez (owns Cadbury), Mars, Twinings, Unilever, and Microsoft are among the...
28 October 2021
Italy: Atlantia offers extra leave to employees who engage in voluntary work
Atlantia employees who engage in voluntary activities will be able to benefit from 10 additional days of paid leave per year. The landmark ‘Cittadinanza Attiva’ (Active Citizenship) agreement is...
28 October 2021
Leaders of 26 major companies commit to eliminating gender inequality by 2030
On 18 October at the opening of the Women’s Forum 2021 in Milan and ahead of the 30-31 October G20 summit to be held in Rome, 26 leaders of major corporations signed a ‘zero gap’...
27 October 2021
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
EU: Commission proposes loosening of AI regulations
On 19 November, the European Commission published a proposal for an omnibus regulation aimed at simplifying the AI Act in order to ‘ensure the swift, smooth and proportionate implementation’ of...
24 November 2025
2
EU: list of new CSRD reporting standards finalised
On 4 December, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) presented the revised list of reporting indicators under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which...
5 December 2025
3
EU: co-legislators strike agreement on Omnibus Directive
The European Parliament and the Council of the EU reached an agreement on the night of 8 December on the weakening of the directives on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD) and corporate...
9 December 2025
4
EU: Parliament formally adopts omnibus, diluting due diligence rules
On 16 December, the European Parliament formally approved the omnibus package amending the EU corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence directives. Their application has been pushed...
16 December 2025
5
Italy: three executives from luxury goods group Tod’s investigated over worker exploitation
Italian authorities are once again turning their attention to working conditions in the luxury goods supply chain. On 20 November, the Milan public prosecutor charged three senior executives of...
28 November 2025
6
Fashion brands accused of violating trade union freedoms in Asia
On 27 November, Amnesty International released a report denouncing widespread violations of trade union freedoms in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka by both governments and suppliers to...
28 November 2025