Germany: IG-Metall union calls for 5% wage increase for 130,000 employees in textile and clothing
Employees’ high expectations.  Helga Schwitzer, in charge of collective bargaining within the IG-Metall’s steering committee, justified the wage claim by reminding that employees bore most of the...
Germany: Volkswagen staff get 3.2% pay rise
Compromise.  Pointing to the German carmaker’s good results in 2010, the IG-Metall’s collective bargaining committee announced, on December 6th, that it intended to claim for a 6% wage increase...
Netherlands: tough negotiations at NXP, Philips subsidiary
Negotiations for the future collective agreement at NXP should be difficult.  This metallurgic company created in 2006 to outsource Philips’ production of semiconductors is owned by American...
Portugal: rotating and partial strikes all week against austerity
Transport affected.  The Monday, February 7-Friday, February 11 is going to be a week characterized by partial strikes in transportation and at the Portuguese post.  The first to enter the contest...
Belgium: FGTB and CGSBL reject cross-industry agreement 2011-2012
Refusal.  After consulting its members, the FGTB refused to sign the draft cross-industry agreement 2011-2012 the social partners concluded in mid-January (see our dispatch No.  110040).  On...
Italy: social partners in “logistics, transportation and goods delivering” industry renew CCN with a unitary agreement
On the night of January 26th, Aite, Aiti, Ansep-Unitam, Assoespressi, Assologistica, Federspedi, Fedit, Fisi, Federlavoro, Legacoop servizi, Produzione e servizi di lavoro-AGCI, Anita, CNA-Fita...
Romania: fierce negotiations on the new Labor Code
Lingering negotiations.  On Wednesday, February 2nd, a new meeting took place between union representatives, Labor Minister Ioan Botis and Premier Emil Boc but it didn’t achieve the negotiations...
Morocco: youth social exclusion is destabilizing Morocco as much as other North African countries
High youth unemployment and precarious employment make a cocktail for social uneasiness.  In 2008, the unemployment rate for the 20-29 age group was 30% in Tunisia, 21.5% in Algeria and 17.6% in...
3 February 2011
Great Britain: TUC develops work program to coordinate affiliates’ industrial action against the government’s policy
Last September, at its annual congress the TUC committed itself to coordinate the resistance of its affiliates’ members’ action against the government cuts (see our dispatch No.  100656). This...
Spain: government, employers and unions sign “grand social pact”
Exercise of shared responsibility.  Bringing this pact into the tradition of social dialogue which, since the transition to democracy, has been “one of the elements that helped permanently...
Spain: government and social partners sign ace plan on the employment of young people and long-term jobseekers
The plan provides for incentives to part-time recruitment for the ailing public, like young people under 30 and long-term jobseekers who have been searching for a job for over a year.  This...
Sweden: manufacturing unions united again before fall negotiations
On January 14, 2011, the trade unions informed that they agreed on a joint bargaining agenda, since the agreement negotiated by Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörer expires on September 30, 2011 (see...
Spain: agreement between the social partners to unfreeze the reform of collective bargaining
According to the document signed on the night of the 26th, the new system will help “rationalize and better articulate collective agreements” and encourage negotiations at company level. The...
Italy: Fiom-CGIL mobilization on January 28th against Fiat’s maneuvers and to defend collective bargaining
“Today, hundreds of thousands of metalworkers, Fiom affiliates or not, are with us” said Maurizio Landini on Friday, January 28th in Milan, on a Piazza del Duomo swarming with people, to sum up...
Belgium: restructuring at Bpost, the former public post
There will be no compulsory redundancies reassured Bpost when presenting its four-year restructuring program, which is going to require €200M in investment.  The aim is to face the drop in mail...
27 January 2011
Netherlands: FNV union wants to tackle abusive use of youth minimum wage in supermarkets
Dutch supermarkets currently employ 260,000 people, i.e. 40,000 more than in 2009, according to the FNV.  This increase is artificial, due to the massive employment of young people working part...
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