Argentina: unions support the nationalization of the YPF oil company
A historical claim for Argentinean unions.  “YPF is becoming Argentinean again” said Hugo Moyano, general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (Confederación General del Trabajo, CGT)...
Italy: employers and unions demonstrate in Rome today to demand measures to stop the wave of economic suicides
Peak of economic suicides among jobseekers.  Indeed, Latium was the region where the number of suicides soared in 2010: +27.3 percent as opposed to +3 percent in Lombardy, which still remains the...
18 April 2012
Norway: new agreement in manufacturing
Influential agreement.  Fellesforbundet is the most important private sector union in the LO confederation with about 151,000 members.  This is why the Norsk Industri employers’ organization is...
Enel: EWC agreement renewed
Transnationality.  The agreement signed on December 16 by Enel’s management, the EWC and the EPSU and EMCEF union organizations contains the definition given in Directive 2009/38 which provides...
Portugal: shipyard staff gives summer holidays up to face production peak
Flexibility.  The Workers’ Committee (CT) of the Viana do Castelo shipyard (ENVC) signed the company agreement maintaining production for August 2012.  Usually, the shipyards are closed for two...
Italy: unitary CGIL, Cisl and Uil mobilization asking for solutions to the “tragic” consequences of the pension reform
Poste Italiane (which “expelled” nearly 5,000 seniors through the “family incentive,” i.e. the father or mother leaving their job with the promise that their child would get it), Alitalia (almost...
13 April 2012
Great Britain: Unite tries new campaign style at Mayr-Melnhof Packaging and Tulip
Unite members at MMP were sacked and locked out in mid-February after undertaking a number of one-day strikes over the company’s method of selection for the redundancies and the terms being...
Germany: IG BCE chemistry union and Technikum temporary work agency create the first training fund for all agency workers
A company agreement… open to all sectors.  The creation of the first Continuous Learning Fund for agency workers in Germany isn’t the result of sectoral negotiations with numerous partners but of...
12 April 2012
United States: minimum wage as a new campaign theme
The minimum wage increase is an increasingly popular theme in the American presidential campaign.  Representatives from different labor unions (Service Employees International Union, Restaurant...
Italy: new Peroni agreement characterized by flexibility and telework
One of “the best company agreements in the sector” is how Pietro Pellegrini, Uila-Uil national secretary, qualified the agreement.  The latter was signed in the night of April 5 between Peroni...
Germany: 6.5 percent increase for construction staff
Pilot agreement for the country.  The agreement signed on March 30 by the social partners in Hessen for a 6.5 percent wage increase in the sector of construction and construction material...
Netherlands: FNV union rejects pay freeze called for by the government and employers
The police are already waiting for the strike but civil servants are not the only targets of the Act in the offing imposing a freeze in all sectors for 30 months.  And unions were not consulted...
Sweden: new provisions on “emergency overtime” in the energy industry
wage increase, the new agreement signed on March 24 between the SEF union (Svenska Elektrikerförbundet) and the EFA energy employers’ organization (Energiföretagens...
10 April 2012
Brazil: unions say government’s manufacturing recovery program is not enough
20 percent cut to employers’ contributions.  On April 3, President Dilma Rousseff presented a program to boost the industry – the Brazilian sector with the smallest growth, +0.3 percent in 2011 as...
Slovenia: agreement on guidelines for the negotiation of the Social Contract 2012-2016
The Guidelines interestingly state that the fundamental issues of the labour law legislation, labour market, health and pension insurance and wages system in the public sector will be subject to...
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
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What readers clicked on the most last month.
1
France: austerity measures proposed in social security financing bill for 2026
Limits on sick leave, the end of social security exemptions for apprentices, and the introduction of additional birth leave: the 2026 social security financing bill, presented to parliament on 14...
16 October 2025
2
Netherlands: ING cites AI as it plans to cut around 950 jobs
Dutch bank ING has informed the employment agency UWV that it may cut around 950 jobs by 31 December 2026. In its notification on 20 October, the lender said the planned reductions stem partly...
30 October 2025
3
France: Decathlon introduces a ‘duty to respect others’ right to disconnect’
A right-to-disconnect agreement was signed in late September for the French arm of the Decathlon sports retail group. It sets out a "duty to respect others’ right to disconnect" and provides...
14 November 2025
4
United Kingdom largely retained within scope of EWCs despite Brexit, study shows
A study published this month by the Institute for Economic and Social Research, the French trade union research organisation, examined how the involvement of British representatives in European...
5
Romania: collective agreement extended to entire insurance sector
On 3 November, Romania’s National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue approved the extension of the collective labour agreement signed on 23 May by the Confederation of Employers in the...
6
Italy: new collective agreement for managers in tertiary sector
On 5 November, the ManagerItalia union and the employers’ association Confcommercio renewed the collective agreement for managers in Italy’s tertiary, distribution and services...