Italy: trade unions and civil society present the Workers Act as an alternative to Prime Minister Renzi’s Jobs Act
Put forward as an alternative to the Jobs Act, the Workers Act was presented at the CGIL headquarters head office at Modena. The Sbilanciamoci! network, an array of 51 associations and Catholic...
Germany: Deutsche Post and Verdi bury the hatchet
The biggest dispute at Deutsche Post for twenty years finally came to a close in the evening of 05 July. At the end of almost four weeks of strike action plus a final 3-day negotiation marathon...
Italy: Whirlpool concludes a framework agreement with unions as a way to avoid layoffs
After months of mobilization, the metals sector unions secured changes to Whirlpool’s initial restructuring plans involving 2,060 layoffs and the closure of two sites following its purchase of...
Great Britain: construction union UCATT succeeds in banning the use of umbrella companies by two local authorities
The Construction union, the Union of Construction and Allied Technical Trades (UCATT), has secured its first two major victories in its campaign against the use of ‘umbrella companies’ used by...
Belgium: oil sector signs new collective agreement
On June 24, Belgium’s oil sector signed its collective agreement for the period 2015/2016. Unions secured the maximum in terms of pay rises as well as improved provisions for quality of life and...
Germany: longest strike in the history of rail comes to an end
Relief for Germany on the eve of the summer holidays: caught up in a year long apparently intractable dispute, the train drivers’ union GDL together with management at Deutsche Bahn announced on...
Denmark: government’s new programme banks on growth and jobs in the private sector
Yesterday, on 28 June, new Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen presented his cabinet and his government’s programme. As regards the labour market he is planning, amongst other things, to revise...
Germany: the strike at Deutsche Post DHL has started a legal free-for-all
Week three of the strike organized by the services union Verdi at Deutsche Post DHL (DP-DHL) comes to a close without the social partners moving one step closer to agreement. In fact it has been...
Italy: Poste Italiane Spa has come to an agreement with the unions over a new business and organizational model for its post-offices
The Italian post services group has reached an agreement with unions over a new business and organizational model to transform its post-offices across the country. The agreement significantly...
Finland: new wage agreement for 2016
The Finnish social partners including the employers’ confederation EK and the trade union confederations, SAK, AKAVA and STTK have agreed wage rises for 2016 within the framework of the growth and...
Germany: a quarter of Germany’s businesses are trying to retain staff who look to draw their pension at 63
A year after the pension reforms were introduced allowing workers with 45 years of contributions to draw a full pension at age 63 compared with 65 previously, the Institute for Employment Research...
Germany: the Strike Republic?
Ongoing strike action at Amazon, Deutsche Post, retail outlets, the Berlin Hospital of Charity, to name just some, upcoming strike action at Lufthansa, or long-term conflict threatening to erupt...
Denmark: latest elections show a dramatic increase in the number of workers elected to Parliament
Election results from June 18 show the Danish People’s party (Dansk Folkeparti) emerged as the country’s second largest political force and has contributed to increasing the number of workers in...
Sweden: a new agreement to develop the commerce sector
How can Sweden’s social model cater for e-commerce and the effects of globalization and yet still maintain its integrity? This was the central question that the agreement signed on June 15 2015...
Germany: Supermarket chain Real’s decision to no longer apply the sector’s collective agreements marks a new stage in their decline
Whilst collective agreements for some 3 million workers in the retail sector are in the throes of being negotiated, the German supermarket chain Real SB-Warenhaus GmbH that belongs to the Metro...
Spain: new collective agreement for the chemicals industry
On June 18, business leaders and unions have announced an agreement in principle on the sector’s 18th collective agreement. The sector’s majority union federations signed the document including...
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
France: Bayer puts female health and inclusive parenthood at the centre of its equality policy
In a new agreement on gender equality highlighted by mind RH, Bayer commits to strengthening its parenthood policy. Furthermore, the company is anticipating pay transparency and introducing...
25 September 2026
2
Germany: Volkswagen cancels almost all collective bargaining agreements signed with IG Metall
The Volkswagen brand announced on 30 September that it is terminating 10 of its 13 internal collective bargaining agreements, effective 31 December 2026. The announcement, which the carmaker...
1 October 2026
3
France: final document on the work of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference
After six months of discussions between French social partners, the guarantors of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference submitted the conclusions of the discussions to the Prime Minister...
17 September 2026
4
Germany: Employers’ representatives seek to limit the rights of works councils
The Employers' Federation of German Employers' Associations (Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände - BDA) published a report at the end of September in which it proposes a...
5
Germany: working time dispute between Mercedes and the IG Metall Union
The news. At the beginning of September, Mercedes-Benz asked employee representatives and the IG Metall union to agree to an increase in the weekly working time from 35 to 40 hours, without any...
16 September 2026
6
Germany: major day of union action in the automotive industry ahead of collective bargaining
A few weeks before the start of collective bargaining in the German metalworking sector, the IG Metall trade union mobilised nearly 175,000 workers across more than 200 industrial sites on 21...
22 September 2026