Companies: unions urge HSBC and Santander to sign an international framework agreement
Community banks. Uni Finance targeted these two banks in particular because they’re leaders in financial services for individuals, or at least presented as such. HSBC, already well established on...
Sweden: Ericsson implements training on better working conditions for all its managers
Arbetsmiljöverket imposes working on the labor environment. The Working Environment Act imposes that businesses systematically work on this topic, following the Arbetsmiljöverket’s directives. The...
Spain: unions mobilized against pension reform
The leaders of Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) and of the UGT called for their first mobilization against the government since Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero came to power in 2004. For the moment, they...
Germany: Verdi and IG-Metall reject the collective agreement presented in January with the Association of Temporary Employers (BZA)
High competition between the social partners. The two big German unions, Ver.di and IG-Metall, may pay a very high price for their faux-pas in the temporary sector. This sector, which only truly...
Spain: metal sector prepares for negotiations for its first national collective agreement
According to CCOO, the metal sector most suffered from employers’ freeze on the revision of wage criteria in 2009 (see our dispatch No. 090617). The situation was even chaotic because of the...
Italy: anticrisis strategy at the center of the 3rd Congress of the Uilcem, the Uil’s chemistry-pharmacy, mining, energy and oil federation
The Unione Italiana Lavoratori della Chimica dell'Energia e del Manifatturiero (Uilcem, the Uil's chemical, pharmaceutical, mining, energy, oil, engineering, services, rubber-plastic, glass...
Spain: details of the framework agreement on collective bargaining 2010-12
Here are the guidelines of the agreement the union and employers’ organizations signed on February 9 (see our dispatch No. 100120).
Spain: employers and union organizations reach an agreement unfreezing collective bargaining for 2010-2012
1% increase in 2010. The agreement signed on February 8 by Gerardo Diaz Ferran for the CEOE employers’ organization, Ignacio Fernandez Toxo for Workers’ Commissions and Candido Mendez for UGT was...
France: summary of the social partners’ work at cross-industry level
ations are still working on the social projects started in 2009. The key fieldworks of these negotiations, which are going to last until next spring, include employment, the modernization of...
Germany: IG-Metall wants to bargain for collective agreements two months early
“The current state of talks (editor’s note: with employers) is advanced enough so we can quickly start early collective bargaining with employers” said Jorg Hoffmann, leader of the IG-Metall in...
Spain: government presents draft labor market reform
After the controversy sparked off by the reform of the pension scheme and the government’s comings and goings around the issue of the possible extension of the duration of contributions (see our...
Sweden: Sandvik’s new company agreement provides for 500 leaves, including about 100 for demotivated or low-skilled workers
egotiated in June 2009 is nearing its end, Sandvik, world equipment leader, negotiated with unions indirect means to have 500 collaborators leave. One of the planned measures is to encourage...
Italy: Intesa Sanpaolo signs group agreement on employment with exceptions to the CCN’s minimum rules
lo signed an agreement with banking unions on an employment program for the group. The Fisac-CGIL refused to sign the text which provides that, for four years, new employees’ wages will be...
Germany: Verdi union demands better working conditions for banking employees during next round of collective bargaining
Tremendous mental pressure, Ver.di says. Convinced that the financial crisis was partly caused by worsening working conditions in banks (high pressure, race for marketing goals, stress, leaves...
Slovenia: bill on minimum wage to take better account of increasing cost of living
The few weeks that preceded the adoption of the bill on January 21 and its transmission to the MPs on January 28 were characterized by a lot of controversy between the social partners and the...
Luxembourg: social partners renew transport collective agreement
The agreement applies to all professional firms of merchandise transport by road, moving, courier, express mail and logistics. Thus, it covers around 10,000 employees. Open one year ago, the...
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