Ireland: unions denounce the European Commission’s interference with the review of sectoral wage agreements
Memorandum.  This is one of the measures negotiated in December 2010 by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union to help Ireland.  By accepting the €67.5 billion, the Irish...
Finland: unions and the employers’ organization of technology industries work together to improve well-being at work
Develop methods to measure hardness and create tools to improve working conditions.  In a general context of increasing retirement age and careers, well being at work has become a key issue.  From...
United States: unionization rate dips below 12%
No need to panic.  One year earlier, the union membership rate was 12.3%.  In 1983, when the BLS started comparing such data, 20.1% of employees belonged to a trade union.  In the mid-1950s, 35%...
Portugal: tense social atmosphere at the Portuguese post while liberalization is running late
Austerity. The management of the Portuguese post announced that it would apply, to the letter, the government’s recommendations regarding the planned pay cuts in the civil service within the...
Germany: Deutsche Bahn staff get 5% increase and extended job security
The end of extremely long negotiations.  Rail social partners aren’t hiding their joy.  The agreement presented yesterday, enabled by the signature, last week, of the agreement in private regional...
Netherlands: employers and unions agree on collective bargaining priorities for coming years
Culture of consensus, sense of anticipation, pragmatism… the polder system isn’t dead.  The evidence?  The Federation of Netherlands Unions (FNV), the Federation of Christian Unions (CNV) and the...
Great Britain: British Airways cabin crew vote for another strike after 13 months of conflict
75% turnout.  The airline’s 10,220 cabin crew were invited to answer the question: “Are you prepared to take part in strike action?”.  With 75% turning out to vote, a great majority (78.5%) voted...
United States: Barack Obama wants to review regulations
Barack Obama’s recent tribune in the wall street journal on the need to review regulations to adjust them to the 21st century is giving the business world a lot of hope.  In this tribune, the...
24 January 2011
Germany: IG-Metall wants to durably add political factors to the “calculation” of collective claims
Correct growing social imbalances.  In an interview published on his federation’s website, Oliver Burkhard, one of the union’s heavyweights, announced the opening of a debate within the IG-Metall...
Italy: driven by Fiat, employers want to quicken the “modernization” of industrial relations
Fiat’s boosting the “modernization” of Italian industrial relations is also shaking employers up.  Tomorrow and on Wednesday, Confindustria will meet with its management and then its steering...
Germany: GDL train drivers’ union threatens with a strike in February to defend its status of negotiator
GDL says this is an insult to train drivers.  After “the longest conflict in the rail industry,” the small train drivers’ union, GDL (34,000 members) obtained, in March 2008, the right to sign...
Germany: construction union IG-BAU claims for a 5.9% wage increase
Bring eastern and western wages in line. Sign of good will or tactical move, the construction union’s wage claim is slightly below that (6%) it presented for the last collective bargaining round...
Austria: real wages markedly decreased in 2010
The two studies Statistik Austria published this week confirm a trend observed in other countries, namely that, with or without the crisis, low wages are decreasing.  The Austrian wage index...
Germany: mass rebellion from banks’ account managers against bill introducing threat of exclusion from public-sector employment
Central register and exclusion from public-sector employment.  Banking social partners have declared war against a new provision the government added to the bill on protection afforded to...
19 January 2011
Belgium: social partners sign cross-industry agreement 2011-2012
Indexation and wage norm.  The cross-industry agreement signed on Tuesday night provides for a wage norm 0.3% higher than inflation, i.e. a purely symbolic margin.  The social partners took...
Netherlands: special fund to recruit mailmen
In theory, postal firms had until January 1, 2011 to reach an agreement allowing them to recruit 80% of their staff with a labor contract, respecting the collective agreement in force.  This...
19 January 2011
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
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
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...
4
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...
5
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...
6
Germany: legal battle at Tesla ahead of works council election
The Frankfurt/Oder labour court has postponed a mid-November hearing in the case between the IG Metall union and Michaela Schmitz, employee representative and head of the works council at the...