National industrial relations
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Italy: new agreement to protect banking sector employees with branch offices only open for scheduled customer appointments
On 24 March Italy’s banking sector employers and trade union bodies together signed a new agreement that includes the anti-coronavirus protocol from the preceding week (c.f. article No. 11732)...
25 March 2020
EU: IndustriALL Europe launches a debate on the definition for ‘essential production activities’
Europe’s industry trade union federation, IndustriALL Europe, has called for ‘stricter definitions of essential production in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and for workers' rights to...
24 March 2020
Italy: protecting workers in the transport-logistics sectors as well as those involved in home deliveries
While the halting of all non-essential activities that was decided between 21 and 22 March has provoked the ire of the trade unions for being too lax and which may prompt these union towards...
24 March 2020
Germany: crisis agreement struck in metals sector
Social partners in Germany’s metals sector announced on Friday 20 March their decision to suspend negotiations over the renewal of a branch agreement which was due to be agreed in principle in...
23 March 2020
France: agreement reached to ensure production activity continues at STMicroelectronics
The majority agreement signed on 18 March with two of the three trade unions (CFDT and CFE-CGC) at the semiconductor manufacturing company temporarily adapts business activity in the context of...
20 March 2020
Spain: Inditex group to cover for one month the cost of employees having to stop work
The Inditex group, which owns fashion retailers such as Zara, has announced to unions and employee representatives that it will not, at present, activate the extraordinary short-time working...
20 March 2020
Italy: banking sector employers pitted against trade unions over bank branch closures
On 16 March 2020 Italy’s banking sector social partners signed a protocol document to combat the coronavirus and protect both workers and customers. While the sector’s trade unions were calling...
18 March 2020
European and international social monitoring – more essential than ever
The health crisis we are currently undergoing is prompting businesses to take often unprecedented decisions in terms of work organization. We can also expect economic activity to be severely...
17 March 2020
United States: the UAW and automakers set up a task force to tackle the coronavirus
The United Auto Workers union (UAW), together with US automakers has decided to set up a task force to address the coronavirus, the objective being to implement stronger protection measures for...
17 March 2020
Italy: social partners sign protocol on measures to battle coronavirus in the workplace
Pressed by the government to establish uniform guidelines to guarantee the safety of employees in the workplace, the Cgil, Cisl and Uil unions and the employer organisations Confindustria, Confapi...
16 March 2020
Spain: employer and union organisations come together to demand exceptional measures to quickly ease impact of coronavirus
The CCOO and UGT trade unions, as well as the employer confederations CEOE and Cepyme, have together drawn up a document setting out their joint proposals for dealing with the coronavirus and...
13 March 2020
Argentina: new waves of branch negotiations to take place against ever uncertain backdrop
Sectoral wage negotiations are in full swing in Argentina, against an economic backdrop that is as uncertain as it is tough. These are the first such talks to take place since the centre-left...
13 March 2020
United Kingdom becomes legal battleground over EWC rights amid Brexit
Compared with other national systems that serve as the basis for several EWCs, the UK has provided a wealth of jurisprudence and the reason for this is an almost two-year battle between employers’...
12 March 2020
Germany: Amazon Deutschland affiliates with the HDE, the German Retail Federation, but without applying sector collective agreements
The German Retail Federation, Handelverband Deutschland – HDE, together with the US online retailing giant Amazon have confirmed that in February 2020 Amazon entered the HDE umbrella federation...
11 March 2020
Germany: services union Verdi publishes ethical principles for the use of artificial intelligence
On 3 March, German service sector union Verdi published its “guidelines for employing artificial intelligence”. Presented as a document “for debate” on the topic of AI technology, the text...
9 March 2020
Italy: with some 10,000 banking sector jobs set to be cut, the impact of digitalisation is the subject of debate
Three of Italy’s largest banks – UniCredit, UBI Banca and Banca Popolare di Milano – have in recent weeks announced thousands of job cuts as part of their respective strategic plans. Some 10,000...
6 March 2020
Our mind news
France: La Poste to launch negotiations for an AI agreement
Following the lead of firms such as Axa, Syensqo globally, and more recently CDC Habitat, La Poste group management will open negotiations on an AI regulation agreement during the first half of...
5 March 2026
Crédit Agricole is to adopt stricter rules on remote work from mid-March onwards. The rules will be tightened for employees, but the maximum number of days working remotely will remain unchanged.
29 January 2026
The three representative trade unions at Orange France have until 10 December to validate an agreement on gender equality, work–life balance and anti-discrimination measures. While the text...
8 December 2025
In 2025, for the first time, the universal registration documents of major European companies contain the sustainability reporting required by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive...
31 October 2025
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: 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
5
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
6
UK: duty for employers to inform workers of their right to join a trade union postponed to 1 January 2027
The news. On 25 September, the British government published its response to a consultation launched on 23 October on the duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union. The...
1 October 2026