Spain: revisiting the 2nd agreement on employment and collective bargaining 2012, 2013 and 2014
The key points of the agreement were revealed the day before (see our dispatch No.  120054).  It contains the commitment to major wage moderation, with wage increases which won’t exceed 0.5...
Germany: with the constant regulation of temporary work, businesses are increasingly turning to subcontracting in all sector
The “new disease of the employment market.”  450 customs agents took part, on Tuesday, January 24, in a major police raid in several logistic centers and offices belonging to Kaufland (Schwarz...
26 January 2012
Germany: agreement on employment reduction without layoffs at EON
No layoffs.  Opened in November 2011, the difficult negotiations on the social plan coming along the thousands of job cuttings announced by EON were finally completed on Tuesday, January 24. ...
26 January 2012
United States: lock-outs are back
American businesses are renewing with an old weapon: lockouts, i.e. the management ordering the temporary closure of a plant.  American Crystal Sugar, a world-class agricultural cooperative...
Spain: unions and employers sign a series of agreements preparing for the labor market reform
Two weeks after acknowledging the impossibility to achieve the negotiations within the deadline given by the government to prepare the labor market reform, the social partners reached a partial...
Greece: company agreements and pay cuts are expanding
Article 37 of Act 4024/2011, voted last October (see our dispatch No.  110640) facilitates the conclusion of company agreements, which will take precedence over sectoral agreements.  Thus, in...
France: interview of Marcel Grignard, CFDT deputy general secretary, on the government’s plan to make competitiveness-employment contracts take precedence over labor contracts
During the social summit of January 18, President Nicolas Sarkozy presented the social partners with an idea: developing competitiveness-employment agreements allowing adjusting working conditions...
Petrobras: global framework agreement signed with ICEM uploaded
In this agreement, which aims to apply to Petrobras entities abroad and which the group is going to promote among its subcontractors, the 3rd largest energy company in the world commits to respect...
Belgium: joint union front calls general strike on January 30
Dialogue.  They denounce the lack of social dialogue that comes with the adoption and implementation of the measures.  Shortly after the government’s agreement in early December providing for...
Italy: banking social partners renew national collective agreement
The “best possible outcome for union organizations without a second of strike.”  This is how Lando Maria Sileoni, leader of FABI, the majority union in the sector, qualified this agreement. ...
Spain: agreement on the new collective agreement in the construction sector
The representatives of the national construction confederation (CNC) and of the MCA-UGT and FECOMA-CCOO union organizations signed, on January 20, the 2012-2016 agreement.  The end of the debates...
Norway: after the January 18 strike, key unions are rejecting the transposition of the European directive on temporary work
Political strike to reject the transposition of the Directive.  Norway, along with EU countries, Iceland and Liechtenstein, is part of the European Economic Area and, as such, benefits from the...
23 January 2012
Germany: in 2011, worked and saved working hours and the work week increased
More work, more overtime, more working people.  The number of hours worked in Germany increased in 2011.  over the 3rd 2011 quarter, 11,776 million hours were worked, i.e. 1.3 percent more than...
20 January 2012
Poland: union organizations suspend participation in the Tripartite Committee
Joint initiative.  It was the first time the leaders of the three union confederations (Piotr Duda of NSZZ Solidarnosc, Tadeusz Chwalka of the Union Forum (FZZ) and Jan Guz of OPZZ) organized a...
Great Britain: future merger between PCS and Unite is taking shape
The unions are not yet in formal merger talks Serwotka made clear in a recent interview with the Financial Times newspaper that he wanted to keep deepening the ‘ever closer developing...
Compass: agreement with the IUF international union federation on union freedom at Eurest Algeria
Complaint.  Seized by workers at Eurest, a company located in southern Algeria responsible for catering in several multinationals in the region, the IUF filed a complaint, on December 14, 2009...
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