Rhodia: creation of the “Observatory Worldwide Safety”
Role, composition and meetings. “The role of the Worldwide Safety Panel is to monitor the safety situation within the group” reads the amendment to the global agreement, signed on June 19, 2009...
Great Britain: growth, employment and cutting public expenditure featured in the parties’ manifestos for the coming general election
For the first time in many years, there are no specific policy pledges on industrial relations from any of the three main parties (although the manifestos have yet to be launched). This reflects...
Sweden: new agreements for metal and chemistry workers supervise appeal to temporary work
The overall provisions of these agreements are similar to those contained in the agreement for white-collar workers and executives in the industry (see our dispatch No. 100257). IF Metall obtained...
International: the Swedish and Brazilian trade unions lobby for Saab to modernize the Brazilian military aircraft
The declaration also emphasised the commitment of the Swedish governmental and non-governmental sector to support the establishment of new production clusters for defence equipment. It underlined...
Austria: negotiations on flexible working time in metal failed
Complete jam. “If the concept of flexible working time simply means cutting wage increases and extending working time, we won’t sign any agreement” declared Peter Schleinbach, in charge of...
United States: the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) comes back to life
The employers launched the red alert. Randel Johnson, the US Chamber of Commerce’s labor relations expert launched the “red alert” for the three million businesses belonging to the Chamber...
Italy: Fillea, the CGIL building industry federation held its XVIIth national congress
Commitment to the « law ». The union commits itself to relaunch the campaign against the “caporalato” (illegal form of labour exploitation), widely spread in the country, so that it could be...
Great Britain: about the use of injunctions by the employers to prevent strikes
The current legal framework governing industrial action and strikes results from the legislation passed by the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s. It is legislation which Labour...
International: Russia and the crisis
Real figures behind façade optimism. While Vladimir Poutine is talking about the beginning of a drop, based on the number of jobseekers listed by employment agencies (2.7 million in early march)...
Great Britain : social conflicts might multiply and become more radical
History of social conflicts. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the trade union membership has been dropping; consequently, collective bargaining has been declining. However, this trend does not...
Germany : the employers of the chemistry industry blame the trade unions’ “multi-risk insurance minded” mentality and want to freeze the wages
«On the one hand, IG BCE wants more secure jobs and a recruitment guarantee for the apprentices and on the other hand, more money”. This is not compatible, particularly in these difficult...
Great Britain : focus on the conflict between British Airways and Unite
On top of this, BA’s labour cost base has always been higher because as a former nationalised industry (until 1987) with an effective monopoly as the national carrier, and compelled by law to...
Germany: Coca-Cola Germany rules out economic layoffs until the end of 2012
Increased competition. “After the threat of massive warning strikes and extremely complicated negotiations, we managed, a) to maintain jobs and b) to conclude guidelines for five collective...
Areva: interview with Maureen Kearney, European Works Council Secretary and Dominique Chevalier, Bureau Member
Dominique Chevalier. We were already opposed to the sale of T&D to Alstom. When we learned that what was planned differed from what had been initially announced, i.e. that the sale of T&D...
Austria: the Confederation of Austrian Unions keeps loosing members
16,400 fewer members last year, is the 2009 evaluation of the evolution of the size of the seven sectoral unions representing 1.22 members. In spite of these dreary results, the ÖGB doesn’t see...
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