National industrial relations
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Great Britain: Cadbury achieves historic voluntary redundancies at its Bournville plant and the remaining employees are willing to take on more flexibility in their jobs
A voluntary redundancy deal at chocolate bar maker Cadbury’s Bourneville plant in Birmingham will see more than 200 workers receive an average pay off of £100,000 each. The size of the pay offs is...
19 January 2015
Holcim/Lafarge: an international union campaign so that the cement makers merger will result in both social as well as economic benefits
Two world leaders in the cement and buildings industry: Holcim and Lafarge will join forces to create a new group that will employ 130,000 with revenues of 35 billion euros. Faced with what will...
15 January 2015
Denmark: the agri-food and metalworkers unions both under the LO banner prepare to merge
Whilst the merger between the two main Danish confederations, LO and FTF will be at the top of their respective agendas during their Autumn congress meetings, two unions under the LO umbrella: NNF...
15 January 2015
Great Britain: London’s Unite union bus drivers go on strike to seek a collective bargaining agreement that will curb wage disparities for the city’s drivers
Bus drivers in London, members of the Unite union, have taken a one-day strike action in pursuit of a London-wide collective bargaining agreement with all the eighteen bus operators in the...
14 January 2015
Brazil: thousands of automobile sector workers march on the motorway near São Paulo
On January 12, between 7,000 and 30,000 workers from the Volkswagen, Ford, and Mercedes-Benz factories marched in protest at 1,000 job cuts. The march signals an escalation in social conflict that...
14 January 2015
Italy: the banking sector unions set a general strike for January 30
The Italian banking sector unions have called for a general strike on January 30 demanding the renewal of the national collective agreement and decrying the employers association for their...
13 January 2015
Belgium: social dialogue restarts
Employers and unions met again on Monday January 12 to restart negotiations. A series of meetings are scheduled until January 26 and are aimed at finalizing the agreement on the ‘time-credit’ and...
13 January 2015
Great Britain: Unity union merges with the GMB giant
Yet another small traditional British trade union has decided to merge with the large general GMB union that counts more than 630,000 members. Unity sees this move as its last ditch attempt to...
13 January 2015
Each and everyone Charlie
"In a free State every man may think what he likes, and say what he thinks" - Benedict Spinoza, 1632-1677 Dutch Philosopher. Theological-Political Treatise: Chapter 20
8 January 2015
Great Britain: Post Office agrees a three-year pay and conditions deal with some of its workers
The Post Office, a state company, and the CWU communications union have agreed a new three year pay and conditions agreement for the 2,000 workers employed by the company in its Admin and Supply...
7 January 2015
Germany: on January 1 the new controversial law on a national minimum wage came into force and continues to divide opinion
After years of debate, on January 1 Germany finally implemented its first-ever blanket national minimum wage set at 8.5 euros (before tax) an hour. Previously employers and unions had...
6 January 2015
Great Britain: a fresh approach to help employees return to work faster after periods of illness
The UK government’s Fit for Work program aims to sharply reduce absenteeism levels. The program due to roll out in early 2015 will assist employees on long-term sick leave return to work quicker.
6 January 2015
Belgium: the social partners conclude a series of ‘mini-agreements’ restarting a stalled social consultation process
On December 18, representatives of both the unions and employers’ bodies came back to the negotiation table and came closer over the issue of separate employee blue collar | white collar status...
19 December 2014
Spain: CEOE the employers confederation, currently tarnished over corruptions scandals re-elects its president for another term by a very slim majority
On December 17, Juan Rosell the 58 year old Catalan businessman and President of the CEOE since 2010 was reconfirmed as President for a further four year term. He garnered 345 out of the 768...
18 December 2014
Germany: Deutsche Bahn and the GDL union find a basis for negotiations and defuse the social conflict tracking the rail sector
The all out strike for German rail workers set for January 2015 is off. Management at Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the train drivers union (GDL) made the announcement on Wednesday December 17. This was...
18 December 2014
Russia: lower real wages for 2015 are a worrying sign
In Russia, social crisis is waiting in the wings. The currency (RUB, ruble) is collapsing as oil prices plummet and Western sanctions linked to the Ukraine situation take effect. Since the start...
17 December 2014
Our mind news
Crédit Agricole is to adopt stricter rules on remote work from mid-March onwards. The rules will be tightened for employees, but the maximum number of days working remotely will remain unchanged.
29 January 2026
The three representative trade unions at Orange France have until 10 December to validate an agreement on gender equality, work–life balance and anti-discrimination measures. While the text...
8 December 2025
In 2025, for the first time, the universal registration documents of major European companies contain the sustainability reporting required by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive...
31 October 2025
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...
20 October 2025
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
Oliver Dietrich (IG Metall): “The advent of AI can be a means of deepening social partnership within companies”
In Germany, trade unions want to influence how AI is deployed in companies. Oliver Dietrich is an AI project manager at the regional office of the IG Metall trade union in North Rhine-Westphalia...
21 January 2026
2
EU: social partners split over competitiveness and action on job quality
The European Trade Union Confederation and BusinessEurope have published their response to the consultation document on the European Commission's upcoming EU quality jobs initiative. The two...
4 February 2026
3
Germany: collective bargaining negotiations begin in chemical industry
Collective bargaining talks in Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries are due to open this week, covering nearly 580,000 employees across around 1,700 companies. With the sector facing...
3 February 2026
4
Italy: new generational renewal agreement penned at UniCredit
The agreement signed on 30 December by UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest banking group, with the Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca and Unisin trade unions aims to continue generational...
15 January 2026
5
France: social partner talks extend far beyond contractual terminations
After a false start on 3 December, French social partners resumed talks on 7 January 2026 on potential changes to the unemployment insurance agreement, including the rules governing compensation...
12 January 2026
6
EU: banking sector social partners commit to combating violence and harassment
On 15 January, the trade union federation UNI Europa Finance and three employers’ associations in the banking sector signed a joint statement on preventing violence and harassment in the...
16 January 2026