Germany: Postbank and Verdi put an end to their conflict on the transfer of employees to external companies
In Verdi’s eyes, this conflict on the transfer, announced last summer, of about 1,500 Postbank employees (out of 22,000) to external companies, within the framework of the DB’s takeover of...
Carrefour: the French company and UNI Global union create Carrefour Colombia union
Global agreement for the creation of Carrefour unions.  On December 1, 112 workers of Carrefour Colombia created their own union organization, called Unión de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores de...
SAP: new agreement establishing a EWC
Atypical philosophy of employee representation.  After a two-year bargaining and thinking process, launched in 2009, SAP announced that a majority of the 29 members of the SNB agreed on the final...
EADS: new European agreement on the harmonization of the variable remuneration of Senior Managers
Senior Managers (L4) working in businesses where EADS holds over 50% of the capital in the countries where the country is primarily present (Germany, UK, Spain, France) are going to be subject to...
ArcelorMittal: what union strategy after European mobilization?
Investment.  Unions say there were 40,000 in Liege, Belgium – police say there were 15,000.  In Luxembourg, 95% off ArcelorMittal staff allegedly mobilized.  The ArcelorMittal also affected sites...
Italy: 45th Censis report on the country’s social situation
Employment changes.  The crisis slowed down in 2010 (153,000 jobs lost as opposed to 380,000 in 2009) and in 2011 (+0.4% employment boost in the first quarter).  However, permanent employment...
9 December 2011
France – Great Britain: union finances, a debate on both sides of the Channel
ce, the issue of union funding came (back) up in public debates in recent days. In the UK, it was the result of a report from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which led the Prime Minister to support...
Germany: 4.6% wage increase in two installments in the paper industry
This year, union and employer negotiators in the paper industry (40,000 employees) started the collective negotiations for the renewal of an agreement expiring on November 30 with very different...
Romania: bargaining for mimimum wage increase
Possible increase from RON 670 up to RON 700.  On Tuesday, the center-right government told unions and employers that it was going to look into the possibility of increasing monthly minimum wage...
Germany: IG BCE chemistry union and key temporary work federation sign deal paving the way for general equal pay between temporary and permanent workers
Threatening with a law.  The social partners and the political parties have also been bitterly debating the issue of equal pay for several years.  However, so far, only the social partners in the...
Italy: the three key trade unions call for unitary strike against the Monti administration’s austerity program
Unanimously “worried” by the impact the “economic maneuver” (see our dispatch No.  110750) is going to have on “employees, pensioners and the country’s development prospects,” the leaders of the...
Netherlands: FNV disbanded
The FNV, 1.4 million members, no longer exists.  This federation, created in 1982 after the merger of two major protestant unions, is going to rise from its ashes with a new name, ‘De Nieuwe...
Denmark: new FAOS report analyzes changing union dynamics in the country
With traditional unions facing competition from low-cost unions (see our dispatches No.  110674 and 110123), the researchers are talking about an ‘organizing market’ to characterize the Danish...
5 December 2011
Great Britain: seven companies in the construction industry to leave sectoral collective agreement to be free to establish their own working conditions
The seven contracting companies are Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES), NG Bailey Building Services, Crown House Technologies, Gratte Brothers, SPIE Matthew Hall, Shepherd Engineering...
Germany: unions and employers call on government to drop its plan to introduce a premium for stay at home mothers
Ideological battle.  When is a mother considered a ‘good mother’?  Is a mother who puts her child in daycare to go to work a bad mother, a “Rabenmutter” (unnatural mother) or, on the contrary, a...
2 December 2011
Spain: new president asks the social partners to negotiate proposals for a draft labor market reform by January 6
The future President, who will take up office on December 21, gave the social partners the roadmap for the coming labor market reform. He asked them to present a negotiated text by January 6...
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