Germany: businesses reduce apprenticeship places in spite of the growing shortage in skilled workers
According to the first draft of the "2013 Apprenticeship Report," in 2012, German businesses cut the number of apprenticeship places they offered. Indeed, last year, only 21.7% of companies...
18 March 2013
Mattel: China Labor Watch claims employees’ working conditions are getting worse at the toy manufacturer
“Investigators, who entered the factories as production workers or carried out interviews, revealed a long list of illegal and unfair labor treatment at (…)one directly-owned Mattel factory and...
5 December 2012
Indesit: EWC becomes global works council
Composition.  This new international social dialogue structure will be made up of 21 employee representatives – 8 from Italy, 4 from the UK, 4 from Poland, 3 from Russia, 1 from Turkey and 1 from...
Volkswagen: new “Temporary work Charter” will apply to all agency workers across the globe
which the IG-Metall said it was a milestone, Volkswagen, the German carmaker, is committing to reducing the level of temporary employment in the group and to gradually introducing equal pay...
Italy: Ilva or the problems that can arise between environmental and employment requirements
After the memorandum of understanding signed in July (see our dispatch No.  120491) and the adoption of a €336-million budget to clean up the site, the Ministry of the Environment created, on...
Spain: Iberia unions call for 6-day strike against social plan providing for 4,500 job cuts
Unions are joining forces for the strike.  All unions representing workers in the company (UGT, CCOO, USO, Asetma, Sitcpla and CTA-vuelo – which represents ground staff and flight attendants)...
Great Britain: three-year pay deal in the engineering construction industry
Members of the Unite and GMB unions in the engineering construction industry have agreed to a 7.7% pay deal for three years, running from 2013 to 2015. The agreement covers between 50,000 and...
Austria: 3.4 percent increase for agency workers
On Tuesday, November 27, the social partners in the temporary work industry – the PRO-GE union and the representatives of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ) agreed on a new collective...
Great Britain: unions are stepping up their campaigns to improve the wages and conditions of their members in contract cleaning by taking industrial action
Each dispute has been long running and marks a stepping up of the ante by the union. The strikes will be preceded by a national rally in London and followed by a mass lobby of Parliament and...
Germany: in 2011, for the 1st time in a decade, labor cost was higher than the increases observed in the eurozone
“The numbers show what several parameters already pointed out: Germany has first-rate international competitiveness.  But there’s a downside: low wage growth and domestic demand for years.  German...
Belgium: overview of the failed negotiations for the restructurings of ArcelorMittal Liege
The survival of the steel industry in Liege at stake.  On November 19, almost all the workers at ArcelorMittal Liege rejected the proposals that arose with social dialogue.  For its part, the ...
28 November 2012
Rheinmetall: new European framework agreement on health management
Negotiations supervised by IndustriAll.  Rheinmetall AG set up its European Works Council (EWC) in 2000.  Before the summer, it signed a “European Framework Agreement on Health Management,” its...
Spain: how Microsoft Spain and Wolters Kluwer Spain are implementing telework models
e latest labor reform (Decree Law 3/2012) constitutes a legal milestone of Spanish law as telework is regulated within a legislative framework for the first time, by modifying article 13 of the...
Spain: two union leaders explain their organization’s bargaining strategy in the auto industry
On November 21, Renault presented its industrial plan detailing its project to enhance activities in the Iberian peninsula. The carmaker plans to have a new model made at the Valladolid and...
Sweden: manufacturing unions call for minimum 2.8 percent wage increase for 2013
Industrifacken, the association of manufacturing unions made up of Sveriges Ingenjörer (the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers), Unionen (the Trade Union for Professionals in the Private...
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
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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