Finland: government secures an annual increase in working time of 24 hours with no change in pay that will apply to the 300 sector agreements
Following the agreement in March 2016 over the government’s proposed competitiveness pact, which freezes salaries until 2017, raises annual working time by twenty-four hours, lowers the public...
Turkey: an agreement is signed with a group of businesses in the textile sector
On 03 June, TEKSIF, Turkey’s main textile trade unions signed a three-year agreement with 26 big businesses in the sector that will raise salaries and bonuses for the 9,000 members of the union...
Denmark: Siemens Wind Power and Arbejdstilsynet (Danish Professional Environmental authority) both tarnished by an epoxide scandal
Since 2012, Siemens Wind Power, along with some 4,000 other Danish businesses has been proudly boasting the Arbejdstilsynet green smiley (Kronesmiley) that recognizes a high quality-working...
Poland: a union for immigrant Ukrainian workers
On 20 May in Katowice, Poland, Ukrainian workers decided to establish their own union with support from the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions, the OPZZ. This will mark the first ever migrant...
Spain: AndBank signs Spain’s first ever financial sector professionalism agreement
Signed on 02 June between the CCOO union and AndBank, a private bank headquartered in Andorra that has been operating in Spain since 2012, the landmark agreement is the first to set out the...
Great Britain: Uber drivers strike over pay
On 06 June roughly 1,000 drivers with the high profile private hire transport company, Uber, stepped on the brakes for a 24 hour work stoppage in Birmingham in protest at reductions in passenger...
Spain: auto sector’s competitiveness agreements starting to yield results
Spain’s unions are thrilled. Against a backdrop of a slow improvement in the country’s labor market, albeit still with more than 20% unemployment, the auto sector continues to make good progress...
Sweden: a collective agreement making the temporary employment sector more attractive
Collective negotiations that came to a close in Sweden on 18 May confirmed the increasing importance of the temporary employment sector, especially given the undercurrent of unemployment in the...
Italy: sector collective bargaining mechanisms are defunct
Sector collective negotiations, which have governed Italy’s union-employer relations for over twenty years, would appear to have hit a roadblock. In the metals sector, deadlocked discussions over...
France: a majority agreement for renewing social dialogue is signed at Solvay
An imperative for harmonizing social dialogue following Solvay’s purchase of Rhodia, the majority agreement signed on 31 May between management at the chemicals group and the union bodies CFDT and...
Germany: the social partners together with the government recommend setting up ‘business laboratories’ to test mobile working
On 31 May the working group on ‘a digital working world’, chaired by Andréa Nahles, the Minister for Employment and Social Affairs and Jörg Hoffmann, the president of the IG Metall union, and...
Germany: chemicals and energy sector negotiations get started
Following the recent conclusion of agreements in the metals and construction sectors it is now the turn of the important chemicals and energy sectors to renegotiate their sector agreements. At the...
A study on management perspectives on European Works Councils
What do business leaders think of European Works Councils (EWCs)? What value-added do these bodies bring? Are EWCS cost-efficient? These were the questions to which researchers at the Belgian...
Switzerland: On 05 June, Swiss citizens will decide whether or not to establish an ‘Unconditional Basic Income’
On Sunday 05 June 2016, Switzerland’s citizens will vote on an issue raised by the BIEN-CH association (Basic income Earth Network) to approve or not the introduction of an unconditional basic...
United States: the end of unprecedented strike action at Verizon
Forty–four days of strike action at the US East-Coast telecommunications giant Verizon are set to come to a close following a guarantee to create 1,500 well paid US based jobs.
France: rising protest levels against labor law reform reach a new level
The eighth day of demonstrations on Thursday 26 May calling for the withdrawal of the draft Labor Code reform drew between 153,000 (police data) and 300,000 (union data) participants. Protest at...
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...