National industrial relations
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Sweden: new agreement in industry sector includes 6.5% wage increase over three years
On 31 March, an agreement was reached in extremis by the five unions that form part of the Facken Inom Industri grouping and the employer groups in the industry sector. Unusually the agreement...
3 April 2017
France: CFDT becomes largest trade union organisation in private sector
On 31 March, the level of trade union representation across industries in the private sector was made public. The statistics are published every four years according to the results of professional...
31 March 2017
Great Britain: to minimize uncertainty, London will copy European law into UK law
After having triggered Article 50 on 29 March and thereby launching the UK’s official exit from the EU, on 30 March the government published its White Paper on Legislating for the United Kingdom’s...
30 March 2017
Italy: Italcementi restructuring enables managers to move to local SMEs
Italy’s multinational cement company Italcementi, bought in 2016 by Germany’s HeidelbergCement has launched a landmark initiative, which in collaboration with the employers’ body Confindustria and...
30 March 2017
Germany: employers hold that metal workers are satisfied with their working time
At a time when the IG Metall union is calling for more employee friendly working time flexibility, on 27 March the employers’ body Gesamtmetall unveiled the conclusions of a representative survey...
29 March 2017
Spain: the second national collective agreement is signed for the metals sector
On 27 March, the CCOO and UGT-FICA unions, together with the employers’ body, Confemetal, signed the second national collective agreement for the metals sector (industry, technology, and...
29 March 2017
LafargeHolcim: signs an agreement establishing an EWC
Signed on 27 March, the agreement puts an EWC in place for the new group that resulted from the merger in 2015 of two cement giants, one Swiss and one French, and places it under Belgian...
29 March 2017
Bonduelle: a new EWC agreement
In a press statement published on 28 March, EFFAT, the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions announced a new EWC agreement for the French vegetable processing producer...
29 March 2017
France: collective agreement reached for umbrella companies
With the creation of a branch for umbrella companies in December, social partners were tasked with building a framework for the development of this form of employment – a halfway house between...
24 March 2017
Argentina: salary agreement in retail sector
The retail sector trade union in Argentina has reached an annual salary agreement with the country’s government and employers’ chambers. By striking the deal, the largest trade union in the...
24 March 2017
Finland: the president of the employers association seeks an end to collective agreements and looks to chop 10%-15% off salaries
The employers’ toughening stance is nothing new. At the end of spring 2016 employers (EK) announced that contrary to the general custom in place since the end of WWII they intended to suspend...
23 March 2017
Argentina: Mauricio Macri’s government to face its first general strike
Reunited in August 2016, following several years of schism that resulted in three union bodies (c.f. article No. 9796), and against a backdrop of morose economic conditions, the central CGT union...
21 March 2017
United Kingdom: 1.3 million workers have one foot in the gig economy, says CIPD study
According to a new study conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 4% of the British working population work in the gig economy, essentially to top up their...
20 March 2017
EU: the European Trade Union Confederation confirms its position over the need for an improvement of the EU Directive on European Works Councils
On 16 March, the European Trade Union organisation’s executive committee confirmed its position over the improvement EU Directive 2009/38 on European Works Councils, one which places particular...
17 March 2017
Germany: steel sector set for 4% wage increase
The 72,000 steel sector workers based in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Bremen will soon enjoy a wage increase. In the early hours of the morning on 17 March, at the end of a final...
17 March 2017
Norway: new salary agreement to boost low wages but casts doubt over local negotiations in several sectors
On 14 March, a salary agreement was reached by the two Norwegian confederations – the LO (the Confederation of Trade Unions) and the NHO (Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise). The agreement sets...
17 March 2017
Our mind news
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
Candice Guillot, group director of employee experience and HR performance at Talan (7,000 employees), outlines for mind RH her vision and strategy for introducing artificial intelligence at the...
20 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
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...
21 January 2026
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...
15 January 2026
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...
16 January 2026