Germany: Verdi union gets a 6.5 percent wage increase for Telekom Deutschland’s 50,000 employees
6.5 percent increase over two years.  Both parties welcomed the agreement, secured after arduous negotiations punctuated by a series of warning strikes at national level.  “It is a good agreement...
Great Britain: defeated in the fight against council workers’ wage cuts, Unite and Unison help bring the Labor Party at the head of the Southampton council
In mid-2011, the Conservative-run council instituted a 4.5% pay cut, a three-year pay freeze on cost-of-living increments, and a two-year freeze on annual increments. The choice facing council...
Denmark: new Danish Nanosafety Research Center
“Businesses have countless opportunities to develop new forms of nanoparticles, and testing each nanoparticle’s impact on health is a tremendous task.  Yet, as nanoparticles with the same...
Germany: 6.5 percent increase for the 16,500 employees of Deutsche Telekom’s headquarters
6.5 percent increase over two years at DTAG.  It isn’t new for Deutsche Telekom but, over the past few years, collective bargaining has been dragging on and in the end subject to arbitration by a...
Ford: new international framework agreement
The communiqué released by the IMF points out that this agreement was signed after more than a year of talks.  In this agreement, which refers to international labor standards in terms of CST, the...
Spain: social partners at PSA Vigo plant sign agreement supervising work on Saturday
This agreement, which will only last until December 31, 2012, comes 8 weeks after the signature of the new company agreement.  the site’s management was going to rely on the new Article 41 of the...
Portugal: UGT confederation calls for enforcement of the growth and employment chapter of the social dialogue agreement of January 2012
Social dialogue.  The UGT, the only union that signed the social dialogue agreement of January 18, 2012 (see our dispatch No.  120039), is denouncing the delay in the application of the agreement...
Italy: occupational safety culture is spreading
2,710 certificates of conformity to the OHSAS 18001 standard (which regulates the systems managing health and safety at work) were registered in February 2012, i.e. over 50 percent more than the...
Germany: IG-Metall starts warning strikes
The IG-Metall is full of energy.  This year, the IG-Metall sent employers a lot of claims.  The metalworkers’ union, which negotiates the wages of 3.6 million employees in the automotive...
Finland: social partners agree on immediate measures for pensions and unemployment insurance but create working committee for an in-depth reform in 2017
This short-term agreement was a last-minute answer to make sure that the government wouldn’t take legislative action to cut pensions – which would readjust public finances.  The negotiations had...
Colombia: Carrefour and the brand new UTCC union sign their first wage agreement
Result of an international framework agreement.  UNI Global, the international federation, said this agreement was “historic.”  “We hope this marks the start of a new era for trade union freedom...
United States: highest low-wage jobs rate, OECD says
A recent report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) on “Low-wage Lessons” reminds that “about one-fourth of U.S. workers [are] in low-wage jobs, defined as earning less than...
Brazil: 7,000 workers still on strike at the Belo Monte dam project even though court ruled it illegal
“Abusing the right to strike.”  The Heavy Construction Workers’ Union of Para (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nas Industrias da Construçao Pesada e Afins do Estado do Pará, SINTRAPAV) refused to obey...
Netherlands: FNV and Allies sues Albert Heijn supermarkets to reduce “flexible” staffing
Nearly 50 percent of the 3,000 of staff at the Albert Heijn retail centers are still precarious, according to the FNV and Allies.  These six centers supply the country’s 800 Albert Heijn...
Spain: unions, associations and NGOs join forces to defend the Spanish social model
Civil society mobilizing.  Until now, the two big Spanish unions, UGT and Workers’ Commissions, organized street opposition to the plans of the Mariano Rajoy administration.  They called for...
Germany: CDU adds universal minimum wage to its program
The conservatives are converting.  The theme of the introduction of minimum wage has been the sea snake haunting Angela Merkel’s two terms.  After rejecting outright the idea of minimum wage –...
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