South Africa: Walmart needs to give pledges of good practices to South African competition tribunal before taking over Massmart
Unions’ motivations.  In November 2010, Walmart made a takeover bid on the Massmart African retailer.  The latter runs 308 stores in 14 African countries such as Namibia, Tanzania, Ghana, Botswana...
Great Britain: Royal Mail employees vote for strike in London
79% of the members of the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) voted in favor of the strike, the union announced on May 23rd.  The reason is that three sorting centers and a delivery service are...
Spain: Telefónica reveals plan to cut staffing by 25% in five years
When an Employee Reduction Program (ERE) is applied, the employees affected receive unemployment benefits, for the first two years, and then their social contributions are funded by the public...
Germany: Verdi union torpedoes the social partners’ initiative to restore union unity in businesses with a law
Members’ rejection.  The unexpected decision made by Verdi’s Federal Committee (Gewerkschaftsrat) puts a sharp end to the initiative carried out since last summer by the central employers and...
International: unions accuse DHL of violating fundamental social rights
About 80 union representatives from the DHL, UPS, TNT, FedEx, DPD and Geopost companies from all over the world discussed, on Monday and Tuesday, the difficulties faced by the sector’s employees...
Spain: unions announce that they got 750,000 signatures to request a popular legislative initiative against the labor market reform
Five months later, they announced that they got 750,000 signatures (500,000 gathered by CCOO and 250,000 by UGT), i.e. 250,000 more than the 500,000 required to carry their bill through and have...
Denmark: industry is the first sector to get arbitration committee for equal pay disputes
For the 2010 collective agreements, the industry’ social partners agreed to make the LO and DA Confederations responsible for creating the Equal Pay Committee (ligelønsnævn, see our dispatch No. ...
Allianz SE: the management and the EWC sign a European agreement against stress
First major European project.  The agreement presented on May 5th has a double meaning for Allianz SE.  On the one hand, it is the official recognition of growing problems caused by the...
Italy: are Fiat Industrial’s unions more “united” than Fiat Auto’s?
“Uilm, Fimsic and UGL are responsible for a severe decision: by objecting that you can’t organize an RSU election with a closed factory, they prevented the electoral committee from determining the...
Germany: Trumpf group signs agreement with IG-Metall on truly flexible working time scheme
Take account of the “phases of life.”  The “Custom-made working and free time” agreement presented by Trumpf management on may 18th, signed with representatives from the WC and the IG-Metall, is...
Spain: Spanish spring social movement caught majority unions unprepared
The first call for demonstration launched by a group called “Juventud sin futuro” (“Youth without a future”) on April 7th brought things to a head.  This group, made up of students who mobilized...
Italy: Cisl and Uil proclaim themselves “unitary reformer union”
“We’re the unitary and reforming union, born from a pact built over the past three years: the Uil and Cisl together for an Italy that trusts its future.”  This is how Cisl leader Raffaele Bonnani...
Germany: only 2.2 million of employees are covered by sectoral minimum wage negotiated by the social partners
Minimum wage is not yet in force in the temporary sector.  The WSI Institute lists two types of sectoral minimum wages: those that are mandatory for all businesses in one sector via the “Posted...
EU: priorities of the European Trade Union Confederation for the four years to come
Rejecting austerity and pushing to a change in economic governance.  Mirroring the Congress’ leitmotiv and the action plan approved by the 1,000 representatives present, the Athens Manifesto...
Belgium: textile negotiations about to end
Index.  The key bone of contention was the index, pillar of the Belgian social system.  Fedustria, the sector’s employers’ organization, wanted to turn wage indexation into an increase for meal...
EU: interview of Bernadette Ségol, new general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation
Bernadette Ségol.  The key axis that came out of this Congress is about the actions and program we need to have regarding the austerity measures and economic governance project being developed by...
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
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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
France: social partner talks extend far beyond contractual terminations
After a false start on 3 December, French social partners resumed talks on 7 January 2026 on potential changes to the unemployment insurance agreement, including the rules governing compensation...
12 January 2026