Denmark: the working conditions of ‘atypical’ workers have been worsening for ten years
Agency workers in manufacturing, seasonal workers in agriculture, occasional on-call workers (løsarbejderen)… atypical contracts (atypisk ansættelsesform) allegedly concern half a million...
31 March 2011
Romania: talks started on the reform of collective industrial relations
This new bill is going to finalize the labor law reform undertaken by the Emil Boc administration (about the Labor Code reform, see our dispatch No.  110202).
Spain: agreement on flexible pay in Catalonian metal industry
The metal employers’ organization and the Workers’ Commissions and UGT unions agreed to establish an equal committee for the collective agreement, with mediation from the Department for Business...
Germany: 4.1% increase for chemical workers
Agreement difficult to find but differentiated.  It was after nine meetings at regional level and one at federal level that the chemistry partners, gathered in Bad Honnef, near Bonn, reached a...
Italy: metal unions sign unitary agreement with Electrolux on restructuring program in Italy
The agreement signed between the Swedish multinational and the Fim-Cisl, Fiom-CGIL and Uilm-Uil: 
31 March 2011
Germany: large businesses refuse the government’s proposal to increase the proportion of executive women
Mrs. von der Leyen and Mrs. Schröder tried putting on a brave face after a meeting which should have led to a change of direction regarding the integration of women into the management of German...
31 March 2011
Sweden: since temporary work is progressing, unions and temporary agencies are looking for ways to work together
A development which might frighten unions.  Over the last 2010 quarter, temporary work agencies’ sales had increased by 42%, reaching, for the first time, SEK 5bn (€560M) and there should be...
Germany: is bringing tariff unity back with a law not such a good idea?
Bring tariff unity back with a law.  A federal government spokesman announced that the next mediation meeting between the government coalition parties would look at the question of bringing tariff...
Great Britain: shop workers’ union alarmed about the categorization of shops as low-risk workplaces
Context.  In preparation for the simplification of health and safety regulations (see our dispatch No.  110189) and following a consultation organized by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)...
Great Britain: British Airways employees vote to back strike action to protest against the management’s retaliation against the strike movement in 2010
The original dispute of 2009 concerned staffing levels and the unilateral imposition of change relating to this. However, those issues have been largely settled, with the new issues emerging of...
29 March 2011
Spain: limiting appeal to temporary work in high voltage electricity
According to CCOO’s manufacturing federation, “it would have been bad both for the interests of maintenance and assembly employees and for the interests of the businesses themselves if risky work...
Italy: executive committee of the Cisl’s metal federation, Fim, defines priorities for 2011
The national executive committee of the Fim-Cisl, gathered in Rome on March 23rd, almost unanimously approved (3 abstentions) its strategy for the coming months, asking its secretariat to draw up...
Netherlands: the fate of precarious workers at the center of ongoing negotiations for collective agreements
“Permanent contracts have to remain the rule.”  This is a priority for the FNV, the country’s key union Confederation, and its member federations stick to it: in all the collective agreements...
Great Britain: great turnout for TUC demonstration against government austerity policy
The turnout was considerably higher than the 100,000 the TUC had predicted in the weeks running up to the demonstration. The breadth of those participating was extensive from unions to pensioner...
Germany: Verdi union and Deutsche Telekom agree on increases ranging between 3.15 and 5.15%
The intervention of a mediator, four meetings in three months and several warning strikes were necessary for the social partners to agree on wage increase counting among the highest increases...
Brazil: unions satisfied with the outcome of 2010 collective bargaining
The study published by the interunion department of statistics and socioeconomic studies (DIEESE) analyzes the 700 wage negotiations, including collective agreements negotiated at sectoral level...
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
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...
5
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
6
EU: banking sector social partners commit to combating violence and harassment
On 15 January, the trade union federation UNI Europa Finance and three employers’ associations in the banking sector signed a joint statement on preventing violence and harassment in the...