Italy: five major SME organizations gather within the R.eTe.- Imprese Italia alliance
Give an “identity, a single voice and joint, therefore stronger, representativeness” to small and medium-size enterprises to “modernize the representation of businesses to modernize the Italian...
Spain: José Luis Zapatero explained his austerity program to the social partners
 The controversial points of the austerity program are the following:  
Luxembourg: after the tripartite talks failure, the debate on the social model in Luxembourg is postponed until the autumn
Index. On May 5th, the government proposed to adjust “the index” by modifying the shopping basket which is used as a reference for the indexation (neutralization of the regulated prices, of oil...
Germany: working and pay conditions are still uneven in the east and the west
Between light and shade. 284-pages long, the 2010 edition of the WSI’s handbook (WSI-Tarifhandbuch) is dedicated to the evolution of collective agreements signed in eastern Germany. And the...
Brazil: Renault employees on strike to increase profit-sharing
The 3,500 metalworkers of Renault’s Curitiba factory, in the Parana State (south of the country), approved, on Monday, May 17th, the continuation of the strike launched on Friday, may 14th. The...
Great Britain: the train drivers’ union, Aslef, makes a bid to run the franchise for the East Coast rail
Aslef intends to make a bid as a people’s cooperative to show that the line can be better run than by a conventional profit-seeking company. The cooperative will be owned and run by its members in...
Belgium: new flexible work organization at Audi
Stick closer to demand. “When you start producing a new model, demand is extremely high, everyone wants the brand new fashionable car. After this production peak, usually, demand slows down, so...
Germany: IG-Metall and employers want to renew minimum wage in electrical engineering
A procedure renewed every time. This sector is mostly made up of SMEs, i.e. around 76,000 businesses employing nearly 310,000 people. They are mostly electrical engineers, IT experts and...
Italy: division at the end of the CGIL’s 16th Congress
The 16th CGIL Congress, organized in Rimini between May 5 and May 8 under the catch phrase “to defend work and free rights,” was tainted with the crisis, but not the economic crisis alone. Indeed...
Great Britain: union alliances and users associations to protect jobs in public services in the face of planned budget cuts
there is currently some elementary appreciation that to effectively fight the cuts and privatisation agenda that the new government will implement in the public sector alliances of the providers...
Corporate Practices: one year later, Scania is learning the lessons from the implementation of the 4-day week as an answer to the economic crisis
An atypical decision necessary to safeguard skills. By deciding to maintain its staff in spite of a major drop in orders, Scania adopted a human resources policy clashing with the idea that...
Bolivia: general strike following the refusal to increase wages beyond 5%
On May 1st, the Bolivian government declared that the wage increase in the public and in the private sector amounted to 5% in 2010 and 3% for the military and the police, and there is no...
PSA Peugeot Citroën: amendment to the worldwide framework agreement on social responsibility
This amendment was negotiated with the representatives of the international and European metalworkers’ federations (IMF and EMF) in the name of the 90 trade unions present in the 31 countries...
Air France/KLM: renewal of the agreement on the EWC
The protocol for the group European works council of Air France KLM, renegotiated in 2006, already contained, anticipatory changes introduced by the new EWC directive. The transnational decision...
Russia: new federation of manufacturing unions
The FNPR, a sectoral and social partnership union. Heir to soviet unionism, with its 27 million members – i.e. a great majority of the 46% of union members in the country – the Federation of...
Air France/KLM: framework agreement to supervise the European-wide reorganization of sales agencies in airports
With the prospect of changing the role of sales agencies in airports (ATO), which will follow different modalities and rhythms, Air France KLM’s European group committee (CGE) and management think...
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