Spain: unions come back to the negotiating table after employers promised to unfreeze sectoral agreements
Since negotiations were broken in July, the UGT and CCOO unions have been demanding, before they can return to the negotiating table, that employers unfreeze the 1,500 collective agreements it has...
Company: EPSU European trade union adopts internal procedure for the negotiation of transnational agreements
The EPSU already signed European agreements but, until now, it managed negotiations on a case-by-case basis. But since this type of negotiation is increasing, the organization’s executive...
Brazil: sixth national employee walk focused on working time cuts
The demonstration on Wednesday, November 11 was the biggest of the six now traditional Working Class Walks (“Marcha de la Clase Trabalhadora”) organized since 2004. This year, the annual...
Italy: two programs may be subject to a vote during the next CGIL Congress
CGIL divided in two. The obvious political disagreements of the organization conference of May 2008 (see our dispatch No. 080456) have spread within the largest union confederation in Italy. Thus...
Sweden: unions present claims for 2010 bargaining
Demanding union requests to boost the economic recovery. The LO (blue collars), TCO (executives and white collars), IF Metall (metalworking), Pappers (paper industry), Livsmedelsarbetarförbundet...
Germany: new minimum agreement in industrial cleaning waiting for employers’ decision
It’s the first time a sectoral minimum wage agreement is subject to the new procedures implemented by the liberal conservative government coalition. The latter gave employers’ representatives a...
Spain: social partners in favor of the introduction of short-time working based on the German system
The idea of replacing layoffs by working time cuts with wage compensation from the State was Ignacio Fernandez Toxo’s, leader of the Workers Commissions (CCOO). “Employees in ailing businesses...
Netherlands: new light metal collective agreement postpones wage increases to 2011
Increases postponed to 2011. The General Employers’ Association (Algemene Werkgevers Vereneging – AWVN), affiliated with the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW), the...
Gras Savoye: agreement establishing the EWC
Scope and significant change of the legal structure. The new EWC affects all EU countries where the group has at least one subsidiary “whose accounts and annual totals are included in mandatory...
Denmark: SAS airlines failed to reach an agreement with all unions on cost-cutting program
After concluding, earlier this year, an agreement with unions on a cost-cutting program amounting to 1.5 billion Swedish crowns (almost €137 million – see our dispatch No. 090077), SAS presented...
Netherlands: TNT Post proposes alternative to unions to revive negotiations
Harry Kooistra Director of TNT Post, proposed, in a letter sent on Saturday, a new program. To get the negotiations on the future collective agreement and a social plan presented as unavoidable...
Great Britain: interim agreement between Royal Mail and the CWU pauses the postal conflict
Truce. After several weeks of conflict, the management of Royal Mail, the British post, and the Communication Workers’ Union, CWU, have buried the hatchet. A transitional agreement negotiated last...
Italy: social partners in the paper industry sign a unitary agreement for the renewal of the national collective agreement
War figure in spite of a unitary agreement. The unitary agreement for the renewal of the paper industry’s CCN was signed on November 4 in Rome by the Assocarta employers’ organizations and the...
Germany: IG-Metall union recommends flexible collective agreements to save jobs
e bargaining for the 3.4 million employees in metalworking and electronics, in March 2010, the key local units of the IG-Metall unions already presented several systems to save jobs. Thus, in...
Volkswagen: global Charter on employee representatives’ participation rights
This Charter was negotiated by the Global VW Works Council and the management. In its preamble, the Charter values performance and participation, which create the company’s culture. The first...
Denmark: analysis of the impact on the Danish system of the conflict caused by the renewal of collective agreements in the public sector in 2008
During the biggest conflict in the history of the public sector, in the spring of 2008, as part of the renewal of sectoral collective agreements, several experts were concerned about its...
5 November 2009
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