Germany: agreement in banking sector for 4% pay rise and measures in view of digital transition
Social partners from Germany’s banking sector, including both public and private banks, unveiled the result of their negotiations on the morning of Thursday 4 July. The new collective agreement...
Germany: partial unemployment on the rise (in brief)
According to a survey by the Munich-based research institution, the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, 8.5% of companies are now resorting to partial unemployment measures, making this the...
Belgium: chemical sector agreement signed for 2019-2020
On 26 June Belgium’s chemical sector social partners signed a sector protocol agreement, just weeks after the 2019-2020 AIP (cross-industry agreement) negotiations fell through (c.f. article No...
Italy: hotel group Marriott and trade unions sign a document combatting sexual harassment (in brief)
In a first for the global hotel group, and according to the minutes from the 28 June meeting between management at Marriott’s nine luxury hotels and the trade unions (Filcams-Cgil, Fisascat-Cisl...
Airbus: first ever Airbus Global Forum (AGF) meeting has been held
During the international Paris Air Show, the first ever Airbus Global Forum (AGF) meeting was held at the Airbus Helicopters site in Paris Le Bourget on 20 and 21 June 2019. An entirely voluntary...
Italy: social partners in the insurance sector commit to tackling gender-based violence (in brief)
ANIA, Italy’s insurance sector employers’ body that comprises the country’s main insurance companies, along with the relevant First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, FNA, SNFIA, and Uilca trade unions have...
BEL: an agreement that puts a European Works Council in place
On 20 June, cheese group Bel (which employs just over 5,500 across Europe) along with the SNB and with assistance from EFFAT (European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and...
ENI: renews its global framework agreement (GFA) with IndustriALL Global Union
On 21 June, Italy energy company ENI, the global trade union federation IndustriALL Global Union, and three Italian sector-relevant trade unions renewed their GFA. In it the company commits to...
Germany: failed agreement on the introduction of the 35-hour week in the former East Germany’s metal sector
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Germany is still divided. After an arduous seven-week strike in 1984, the 35-hour working week was secured in 1995 in former West Germany’s...
Italy: innovative agreement struck at Luxottica
On 21 June, Italian eyewear company Luxottica (merged with Essilor) and trade unions Filctem-Cgil, Femca-Cisl, and Uiltec-Uil signed a particularly innovative company agreement (here) that will...
United Kingdom: a non-European group may change the country of its representative agent for negotiating an EWC
In a decision passed on 18 June (here), a Central Arbitration Committee in the UK declared that the leadership of a non-European company, in this case Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE), may...
ILO: Centenary Declaration sets human-centred agenda for the organisation
The 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia opened with these strong words: labour is not a commodity. It also established a series of primary objectives for the International Labour Organization –...
Switzerland: what are the repercussions of the women’s strike of 14 June? (in brief)
Can the impact of the massive ‘women's strike’, which brought nearly 500,000 Swiss people onto the streets of the country on 14 June, be assessed? In the eyes of Unia, the largest trade union in...
Germany: port operator Eurogate negotiates landmark automation agreement
Social partners at Eurogate, one of the largest port operators in Germany, with around 5,000 employees, penned a collective agreement “on the future” at the end of 2018, following several years of...
United States: UAW union rejected again by workers at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Once again trade unionists from the United Auto Workers (UAW) have been defeated in elections at the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, a city in the southern state of Tennessee. The result came...
Germany: IG Metall warns that many companies have no strategies to handle the major industrial changes ahead
During a press conference held in Frankfurt on 05 June, and on the occasion of the presentation of its ‘Transformation Atlas’, Germany’s IG Metall trade union has launched a ‘Red Alert’ over 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
Oliver Dietrich (IG Metall): “The advent of AI can be a means of deepening social partnership within companies”
In Germany, trade unions want to influence how AI is deployed in companies. Oliver Dietrich is an AI project manager at the regional office of the IG Metall trade union in North Rhine-Westphalia...
2
EU: social partners split over competitiveness and action on job quality
The European Trade Union Confederation and BusinessEurope have published their response to the consultation document on the European Commission's upcoming EU quality jobs initiative. The two...
4 February 2026
3
Germany: collective bargaining negotiations begin in chemical industry
Collective bargaining talks in Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries are due to open this week, covering nearly 580,000 employees across around 1,700 companies. With the sector facing...
3 February 2026
4
Italy: new generational renewal agreement penned at UniCredit
The agreement signed on 30 December by UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest banking group, with the Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca and Unisin trade unions aims to continue generational...
5
France: social partner talks extend far beyond contractual terminations
After a false start on 3 December, French social partners resumed talks on 7 January 2026 on potential changes to the unemployment insurance agreement, including the rules governing compensation...
12 January 2026
6
EU: banking sector social partners commit to combating violence and harassment
On 15 January, the trade union federation UNI Europa Finance and three employers’ associations in the banking sector signed a joint statement on preventing violence and harassment in the...