Italy: negotiations for the renewal of the national collective agreement in the banking industry are looking complicated
Yesterday, June 23, after the second bargaining meeting for the renewal of the banking sector’s national collective agreements, unions pointed to “enormous and unfathomed divisions” between their...
Gras Savoye: agreement establishing EWC renewed
On April 4, the management of the reinsurance group and the special negotiating body renewed the agreement establishing a European Works Council, initially signed in 2009. The first deal already...
Germany: a survey by the Hans-Böckler union foundation found that the introduction of minimum wage shouldn’t have a negative impact on the employment market
About 2 weeks to the planned adoption by the Bundestag, on July 4, of the bill on the introduction of statutory universal minimum wage amounting to €8.5/hour, the Hans-Böckler foundation released...
Austria: 2.2 percent increase for the Austrian Post’s 24,000 employees
On Wednesday, June 18, the Post’s social partners agreed on an average 2.2 percent wage increase for all workers in the company.  The agreement, which will start on July 1, 2015 and for a year...
Denmark: for the first time, unions sign a joint collective agreement for all the employees in a company (CGI Danmark)
On June 18, after bargaining for nearly a year, 5 unions - HK/Privat (private sector), PROSA (IT professionals), IDA (engineers), Djøf (lawyers) and Dansk Magisterforening (Masters’ and PhD...
Nordic countries: a new employers’ organization, Nordic Arctic Business Council, was created
Since May 19, Nordic employers have had a new professional organization, the Nordic Arctic Business Council, which gathers representatives from the key employers’ organizations in Scandinavia. ...
Germany: Opel management and IG-Metall agree on social plan for Opel’s Bochum plant, set to close in December 2014
After bargaining for more than a year, the management of Opel and the IG-Metall union have adopted a social plan covering the 3,300 Opel workers affected by the closing of the Bochum plant, to...
Italy: first mobilizations from the “yes unions” at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA)
After bargaining for 8 months to renew the group’s collective agreement, which covers about 86,000 workers (see article No.  130166), the unions that signed the agreement – Fim, Uilm, Fismic, UGL...
Sweden: the number of women on boards has gone up for the first time in 3 years
According to the annual female index of Andra AP-fondens (2nd national pension fund), published on June 4, the share of women on the boards of listed companies has increased for the first time in...
United States: interview of Jon Hiatt, Chief of Staff & Executive Assistant to the President at the ALF-CIO American union
Seizing the opportunity of his trip to Europe for the Congress of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), we’ve interviewed Jon Hiatt on the American union’s current priorities. He...
Germany: businesses aren’t training enough apprentices, thus contributing to the growing shortage in skilled workforce
German businesses are complaining of a growing shortage in skilled workers, the new “2014 Education Report,” presented on June 13 by the Ministry of Education and the Conference of the Länder’s...
Great Britain: despite support from civil society, the GMB union is having a hard time unionizing Amazon workers
Despite a sustained and high profile campaign by the GMB union, Amazon has so far been able to ignore the pressure for change to its regime of pay and work working conditions. This is because...
Great Britain: general mobilization to defend the energy industry
Faced with the specter of a record shortage of skilled workers in electricity, gas, water or even waste, the sector’s employers presented an unprecedented partnership for which the government is...
Schneider Electric: new agreement on the involvement of workers in the future European Company (SE)
Signed yesterday, June 10, the agreement on the involvement of workers in the SE will allow Schneider Electric to finalize its conversion into an SE, approved by the General Assembly on May 6. ...
Zalando: Verdi, the German union, wants to file a complaint against the transformation into a European Company (SE)
The biggest exclusively online seller in Europe just announced that it was becoming a European Company (SE).  Along this announcement came the appointment of 3 employee representatives on the...
Japan: towards the end of sexual division in businesses?
Faced with ramping ageing and falling birth rate, Japan is neglecting one of the assets of its economic recovery: women.  In spite of the 1947 Constitution provides for “fundamental gender...
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...
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...
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...