EON SE: commentary of the agreement on employee participation in the new European company
On October 16, 2012, EON SE signed the agreement on employee participation.  On November 15, 2012, the company officially became a European company and the SE’s EWC met for the first time in...
Lafarge: group management, EWC and EFBWW European federation sign declaration on wellbeing at work
On May 23, the management of Lafarge Group, its EWC and the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW) signed a declaration on wellbeing at work.  This declaration comes on top of the...
Spain: textile/clothing collective agreements renewed in spite of disagreements among employers
The CIE employers’ organization and the Fiteqa-CCOO and FITAG-UGT unions signed the new collective agreement for the textile industry on June 5.  Employers in the fashioning and weaving industry...
Germany: 5.4 percent wage increase over 24 months in the insurance industry
Insurance social partners reached, on the night of June 7, a deal for a 5.4 percent wage increase divided in two over 24 months.  The agreement covers about 95 percent of the sector’s employees...
Belgium: government puts social partners in charge of coming up with the single status for blue- and white-collar workers
About 30 days before the deadline set by the Constitutional Court to get rid of the differences between blue-collar and white-collar workers, the government failed to agree, during the Council of...
Great Britain: groundbreaking agreement to build the new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point
After months of negotiating, the UCATT, Unite and GMB unions have secured agreement with the client, EDF Energy, and the principal contractor, Bouygues Laing O’Rourke, a 'Common Framework...
Germany: Karstadt, Amazon…, the Verdi union is fighting several battles to improve collective agreements in retail trade
Since the Karstadt department store company announced, in mid-May, that it wanted to get out, for two years, of the collective agreements in force in retail trade, a major dispute burst out...
Italy: Turin Court of Appeal toughens sanctions against Eternit management (asbestos)
On Monday, June 3, the Court of Appeal of Turin sentenced Stephan Schmidheiny, the former Swiss CEO of Eternit, to 18 years’ imprisonment for “permanent culpable disaster and culpable omission of...
Sweden: fashion and textile businesses sign agreement that tries to take low wages into account
The fashion and textile industry is the sector where wages are the lowest in manufacturing.  This is way the agreement signed on April 2, 2013 after other manufacturing agreements signed by TEKO...
Lafarge: interview of Philippe Jacquesson, SVP Social Policies for the group, about the global agreement on fundamental social rights and international social relations
In 2005, when it signed its Global Framework Agreement on fundamental rights, the French group was already a pioneer in establishing global dialogue with international unions.  On May 21, the...
France: employment guarantee agreements rush?
When are employment guarantee agreements signed?  What’s in them?  And what about the promises made to the employees?  These agreements – alternatives to layoffs – will soon have a legal...
Portugal: UGT and CGTP call for general strike on June 27
The UGT has decided to join in on the general strike decided by the CGTP for June 27.  Support from the moderate union – which until now was the only one involved in dialogue with the government –...
Belgium: should ArcelorMittal Liege be nationalized?
The rescue of the Walloon steel industry hogged the best of the weekend news after ArcelorMittal decided to postpone the nearly €32-billion investments it was planning for the cold-processing...
Great Britain: government looks into appeal zero hours contracts
In an interview to People Management, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced that the government was reviewing zero hours contracts – a growing form of contracts with no minimum working time. ...
Germany: first report by Hans-Böckler foundation found wages should be up in numerous sectors in 2013
2013 collective bargaining is already well on its way.  In about 20 major sectors, the social partners have reached agreements, the outcome of which has been analyzed by the Institute of economic...
United States: Walmart under social pressure prior to its annual general meeting
Despite the fact that Walmart initiated actions with a view to improving its associates' scheduling in response to the strike action organised in the Autumn, including during the crucial Black...
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
Germany: standoff over national plan to boost collective bargaining
Under the EU Adequate Minimum Wages Directive, Germany is required to produce an action plan to boost collective bargaining coverage. That plan has stalled, however, after being blocked by the...
9 February 2026
5
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...
6
ENI incorporates just transition and AI into global agreement
On 13 January, Italian energy group ENI renewed its global agreement on international industrial relations, corporate social responsibility and the just transition with Italian unions CGIL, CISL...
5 February 2026