Great Britain: RMT transport union reaches very favourable deal on a strategic line for the Olympic Games this summer in London
Serco Docklands, which operates the driver-less train service but has on-board train staff, agreed to a rise in the standard overtime rate for about 550 of its employees, making overtime paid at...
United States: union membership stable around 12 percent
“In 2011, the union membership rate was 11.8 percent, essentially unchanged from 11.9 percent in 2010,” the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on January 27.  while in the public sector...
Australia: unions are looking for alternatives to the possibility of 7,000 job cuts in two years in the banking sector
Layoffs in spite of profit.  most key banks in Australia, such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Australian and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), the National Australia Bank, Westpac or...
31 January 2012
Portugal: new management for the CGTP confederation and left-wing intensification
End of a 25-year term.  Manuel Carvalho da Silva put an end to his job as CGTP general secretary during the union’s 12th Congress on January 28-29, concerned by the age limit (62) imposed by the...
Germany: Lufthansa and Verdi sign a variable geometry collective agreement with a 3.5 percent wage increase
The agreement presented by Lufthansa and the German services union and the negotiations that led to it are symbolic of the way collective negotiations are evolving in German businesses.  At...
Italy: wave of social movements against the government’s measures
“Success.”  This is how the USB (Unione Sindacale di Base) qualified the first general strike organized by the independent unions – Usb, Orsa, SlaiCobas, Cib-Unicobas, Snater, SiCobas and Usi –...
Alstom: European agreement on social commitments during the transition period of the joint venture between Alstom and Shanghai Electric
ederation (EMF) and Alstom management have already signed European agreements concerning social guarantees within the framework of an operation likely to have an impact on employment. In a new...
Germany: lobbied by its members, the IG-Metall is calling for a 6.5-7 percent wage increase
6.5 percent increase, adjustment included.  “In the coming weeks, golden reports and record results are going to be released.  Employees are simply asking for a fair share of what was made...
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...
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
France: Bayer puts female health and inclusive parenthood at the centre of its equality policy
In a new agreement on gender equality highlighted by mind RH, Bayer commits to strengthening its parenthood policy. Furthermore, the company is anticipating pay transparency and introducing...
25 September 2026
2
Germany: Volkswagen cancels almost all collective bargaining agreements signed with IG Metall
The Volkswagen brand announced on 30 September that it is terminating 10 of its 13 internal collective bargaining agreements, effective 31 December 2026. The announcement, which the carmaker...
1 October 2026
3
France: final document on the work of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference
After six months of discussions between French social partners, the guarantors of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference submitted the conclusions of the discussions to the Prime Minister...
17 September 2026
4
Germany: Employers’ representatives seek to limit the rights of works councils
The Employers' Federation of German Employers' Associations (Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände - BDA) published a report at the end of September in which it proposes a...
5
Germany: working time dispute between Mercedes and the IG Metall Union
The news. At the beginning of September, Mercedes-Benz asked employee representatives and the IG Metall union to agree to an increase in the weekly working time from 35 to 40 hours, without any...
16 September 2026
6
Germany: major day of union action in the automotive industry ahead of collective bargaining
A few weeks before the start of collective bargaining in the German metalworking sector, the IG Metall trade union mobilised nearly 175,000 workers across more than 200 industrial sites on 21...
22 September 2026