Portugal: strike at Volkswagen factory after employees reject pre-agreement with trade unions
Workers at AutoEuropa, the Volkswagen factory in Setubal, near the Portuguese capital Lisbon, are set to strike on Wednesday 30 August. They are opposing the move to a six-day working week, which...
29 August 2017
Suspension of our information thread for our summer vacation
Our information thread will be stopped during our summer break, from July 31 to August 28 included. The website and the archives remain available during that period. The whole Planet Labor team...
Spain: nationwide salary negotiations break down
Following more than eight months of talks, social partners appear to have thrown in the towel. Unless there is a late twist, there will be no framework agreement on wages to guide collective...
In brief, Rio Tinto commits to changing its attitude towards trade unions
The campaign led by IndustriALL Global Union that has targeted Rio Tinto, the Australian-British metals and mining corporation, is most probably one of the most tenacious pursued by an...
News update as of July 26, 2017
Last minute : today the UK government has said it will abolish the charging of employment tribunal fees and reimburse those that have paid them. The decision follows a ruling from the country's...
Philippines: the methods of the biggest temporary work agency in the world
In a long-standing trend that dates back to the oil crisis of the 1970s, the Philippines’ government not only encourages the export of labor, but institutionalized it so that today, through a...
Spain: Axa Seguros becomes first company to recognise ‘right to disconnect’
The insurance firm's new collective agreement recognises employees' right to turn off their mobile phones outside of working hours. The agreement also looks to help workers achieve a work-life...
France: ordinance published on non-financial CSR reporting
The ordinance which modifies non-financial reporting provisions in order to come in line with Directive 2013/34 on CSR non-financial reporting for large companies and other businesses as well as...
Italy: the Uil central union launches a database of company and regional agreements
On 11 July the Uil presented project DIGIT@UIL, which is a database of some seven hundred second level agreements (local and company). The software, which will be open to the public in September...
Axa: EWC’s role in the group’s digital transformation process (interviews)
Axa Group’s European Works Council (EWC) has some twenty years of experience with social dialogue under its belt not least concerning the agreement regulating its own operations but also the...
Spain: unions hoist the standard of Catalan independence
Trade unions have taken up their positions vis-à-vis Catalan independence. The large central unions, the UGT and the CCOO, which at national level back a federal and pluralist Spain, have signaled...
Briefly: workers at the Nissan Canton (Mississippi) site will vote on 3 and 4 August on a UAW presence
On 17 July the US auto union announced it had secured an agreement with the Nissan site management to organize a two-day NLRB supervised vote that would allow the blue-collar workers to vote in...
United Kingdom: government has published its Brexit related European Union (Withdrawal) Bill
Last Thursday, July 13th, the UK government published the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017. What this Act will do, if enacted, is to incorporate into UK law as domestic law all...
Netherlands : new collective labour agreement (CAO) for metal and electrical engineering industry
On the 21st of April, employers and trade unions have reached an agreement on the new Collective labour agreement (CAO) for Metal and electrical engineering industry. In the beginning of June, the...
In brief, United Automobile Workers, the American trade union for workers in the automobile industry, tables a request for a vote on trade union presence at the Nissan factory in Canton, Mississippi
On 11 July, the UAW announced that it had presented to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) a petition signed by 30 per cent of blue-collar workers at the Nissan factory in Canton...
Argentina: metals and oil sectors conclude wage agreements
Two key industrial sectors concluded their annual wage agreements (Paritaria) in June. The oil and metals sectors signed separate specific agreements after hard fought compromises were wrung from...
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...