Sweden: Medlingsinstitutet publishes 2010 report and links Sweden’s competitiveness and “realistic” pay bargaining
2010 was particularly intense since nearly 550 collective agreements were negotiated for about 3.3 million workers.  Besides, since most of these agreements expire on March 31, 2010, negotiations...
Germany: unions launch national action day in 1,000 businesses for equal treatment between permanent and temporary employees
National action day for equal pay.  True to their new strategy of involving employees more actively in the protection of their interest, and as a clear message to employers, German unions decided...
24 February 2011
Greece: protest is not getting weaker
Demonstrators massively answered unions’ call on Wednesday, marching in close ranks in the streets of Athens.  Police say 30,000 came which organizers say between 60,000 and 100,000 came.  For the...
Finland: social partners commit to continue action organized since 2005 to reduce the gender pay gap
In a joint declaration published on February 10th, the key union confederations in Finland (SAK, STTK and Akava) and the key employers’ organizations in the public sector (churches, communities...
24 February 2011
Italy: Fiat keeps applying its model in Italian undertakings in spite of the Fiom-CGIL’s opposition
On February 15th, Fiat managing director Sergio Marchionne told the committee on productive activities of the Chamber of Deputies that Fiat’s “head” would remain in Turin provided that the...
Great Britain: pay disputes spread because of increasing cost of living
The main factors explaining this considerable increase are the rise in the standard rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) from 17.5% to 20% and the continued increase in the price of crude oil. With this...
Germany: 130,000 employees in textile get a 3.6% wage increase
Union satisfaction.  For the first time ever, the IG-Metall union and the Confederation of the German Textile and Fashion Industry (Gesamtverband textil + mode) managed to reach an agreement...
Austria: Telekom Austria offers “golden early retirement” to its employees
800 requests for “golden early retirement” are currently pending at Telekom Austria’s personnel services.  “The program is a total success.  I think that, this year, 350 colleagues are going to...
22 February 2011
Belgium: government chooses its compromise offer to make up for the absence of cross-industry agreement
Application of the agreement.  After an umpteenth meeting with the social partners on Friday morning, premier Yves Leterme asked his government to start the implementation of the draft compromise...
21 February 2011
Germany: government agrees to the introduction of minimum wage in interim, surveillance and continuous education
Moderate increase of the Hartz IV allowance.  In February 2010, the Karlsruhe federal constitutional court forced the coalition parties to review the amount and calculation modalities of the Hartz...
Rhodia: renewal of the global agreements on social and environmental responsibility
This new renewal of the agreement, already renewed in 2008 (see our dispatch No.  080333), ads the addendum signed in 2010 which provided for the creation of a “global safety panel” whose mission...
Denmark: sponsorship, unions’ new “weapon” to recruit new members
Until the summer 2013, the AG København (AGK) handball team will bear, on their T-shirts, the names and logos of the Det Faglig Hus and Krifa unions.  Via an unheard-of alliance in Denmark, the...
Italy: 3rd national conference of call center workers warns about relocations in the industry
The SLC organized the 3rd national conference of call center workers on February 18-19 in Rome.  Three years after the stabilization procedures, which led to permanent contracts for nearly 25,000...
21 February 2011
Germany: Hartz IV regulations reforming unemployment insurance didn’t help reinstate long-term jobseekers
Last week, the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur – BA) provided, for the first time, figures published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, confirming that the people who receive the Hartz IV...
21 February 2011
Netherlands: negotiations open in the basic metal industry
Negotiations for the new collective agreement started on February 16th in basic metalworking, under the sign of “increasingly worsening deterioration” said Jan Berghuis, negotiator for the...
Italy: CGIL’s federation of Commerce, Filcams, launches campaign to regulate work on legal holidays
Increasingly, trade workers have to work on Sunday and legal holidays to meet the demand from retailing, small trades, towns, consumers, to the detriment of laws and collective agreements...
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