Germany: Verdi union calls for a 6 percent wage increase and the improvement of working conditions in banks
End of lean times: after a marginal 1.6 percent wage increase over a year reached in June 2010 (see our dispatch No.  100466), Verdi’s wage committee announced, on January 18, that it would ask...
18 January 2012
Italy: the three key union confederations present a unitary platform to reform the labor market
17, the leaders of the CGIL, Cisl and Uil – Susanna Camusso, Raffaele Bonanni and Luigi Angeletti – kicked off their unitary platform for the labor market reform. In addition to...
18 January 2012
Portugal: new social agreement bans controversial working time increase while adding flexibility
t signed by the Portuguese government, employers and the UGT ends a controversy on the increase of working time with no financial compensation in the private sector. This plan of adding 30 minutes...
18 January 2012
United States: AFL-CIO union launches ad campaign to restore its image
This short spot, which cost $1.5 million, shows men, women, people from minorities, nurses, policemen, firefighters… speaking highly of the value of work.  “Work doesn’t separate; it’s what binds...
Italy: food-processing unions present unitary platform for the renewal of the national collective agreement
The platform will be sent to workers for approval and should be permanently approved by the three organizations’ unitary assembly on February 23-24.  here are the key elements. 
Inditex: the international framework agreement the group signed was used to defend union freedom at a Turkish supplier
The envoy of the CCOO Spanish union used Inditex’s framework agreement (AMI with the Spanish initials) to defend labor rights.  Isidor Boix, Fiteqa-CCOO representative, went on the premises to...
Denmark: 3F union helps unemployed members move to Norway
Verto’s local manager, Henning Karlsen, told the union’s newspaper that the region “wasn’t noticing the financial crisis.”  Its biggest problem is to “find enough skilled workers for the available...
Spain: metal social partners sign agreement on the structure of collective bargaining in the sector
The agreement determines negotiation levels (national, local and company collective bargaining) and divides normative competences between them.  Thus, it lists topics which will purely be...
Germany: transport sector worries about the growing shortage of drivers and is starting to increase wages
Recruiting drivers is becoming a major issue.  On Wednesday, January 11, 2012, Appearing in court for cheating social contributions up to €44,000, the manager of a transport firm in Bavaria fired...
16 January 2012
Netherlands: disagreements within the Federation of Christian Unions
eration in the Netherlands, the CNV, is going to split, for the same reasons the Federation of Netherlands Unions (FNV) did. The pension reform, once again in question, is driving the ACP union...
France: government starts work on social VAT and competitiveness-employment agreements three months to the Presidential election
Competitiveness-employment agreements.  Clearly drawing inspiration from Germany, and its long-term experience with employment guarantee agreements, the government launched the theme of...
Italy: government finishes ‘informal’ consultations on the labor market reform
Union positions.  Banking on the newfound unity because of the mobilization against the “Monti maneuver” (see our dispatch No.  110775), the leaders of the CGIL, Cisl and Uil – Susanna Camusso...
12 January 2012
Germany: 4 percent wage increase at the Deutsche Post
For the most part, the serenity that governed the negotiations between Deutsche Post and Verdi came from the important profits the Deutsche Post made in 2011, notably because of the boom in...
Italy: successful Facebook campaign against the relocation of Omsa (Golden Lady Group) to Serbia
Launched by blogger Massimo Malerba (expert in web political campaigns, who initiated, among others, the ‘No Berlusconi Day’) after the layoff, on December 27, of the 329 workers of Omsa’s Faenza...
12 January 2012
Germany: introducing universal minimum wage and equal pay in the temporary sector will be the core of union action in 2012
For universal minimum wage and equal pay in the temporary sector.  The first press conference organized by the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB), which traditionally marks the beginning...
Spain: unions and employers cannot agree on all labor market reform issues
The social partners had until January 6 (now January 10) to agree on a labor market reform (see our dispatch No.  110745).  When the deadline came, employers and unions sent Premier Mariano Rajoy...
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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
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
3
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
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...