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
Italy: CGIL proposal to change representation and union democracy rules
On January 15th, the CGIL’s steering committee approved the proposal entitled “Democracy and Representation.”  Pointing out that “union freedom belongs to all workers and can’t become a variable...
Morocco: EU-Morocco partnership struggles to bear fruit on social and labor rights
Initiating synergy between the Advanced Status and Euromed.  This first meeting between the Euro-Mediterranean (Euromed) Moroccan network of NGOs and the equal Parliamentary committee for the...
17 January 2011
Electrolux: international framework agreement signed with Swedish metalworkers’ union, IF Metall
A framework agreement that recognizes the role unions play across the world.  “This is highly satisfactory and we hope other businesses are going to follow this example” declared Stefan Löfven...
Germany: new “historical” sectoral collective agreement in local rail traffic
End of wage dumping.  With this sectoral agreement, adopted after months of particularly tricky negotiations (see our dispatch No.  100725), the new rail union, EVG (Eisenbahn – und...
Portugal: employers recommend temporary flexibility on labor laws
Temporary reform in times of a crisis.  The CIP’s new management, which has recently took up its post, recommends a temporary reform of the Labor Code to revive the country’s economy.  The point...
Italy: 54% of Fiat Mirafiori employees approve the separate agreement on the plant’s future
The outcome of the referendum on the separate agreement for the reorganization of Fiat’s historical plant in Turin, Mirafiori, signed on December 23rd (see our dispatch No.  110001) by the...
United States: CEOs of auto Big 3 want to link workers’ remuneration with the company’s performances
Big bosses in the American automotive industry are dreaming of a new form of remuneration, based on performance, for their plants’ unionized workers.  Several mentioned the possibility to...
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: Bayer puts female health and inclusive parenthood at the centre of its equality policy
In a new agreement on gender equality highlighted by mind RH, Bayer commits to strengthening its parenthood policy. Furthermore, the company is anticipating pay transparency and introducing...
25 September 2026
2
Germany: Volkswagen cancels almost all collective bargaining agreements signed with IG Metall
The Volkswagen brand announced on 30 September that it is terminating 10 of its 13 internal collective bargaining agreements, effective 31 December 2026. The announcement, which the carmaker...
1 October 2026
3
France: final document on the work of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference
After six months of discussions between French social partners, the guarantors of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference submitted the conclusions of the discussions to the Prime Minister...
17 September 2026
4
Germany: Employers’ representatives seek to limit the rights of works councils
The Employers' Federation of German Employers' Associations (Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände - BDA) published a report at the end of September in which it proposes a...
5
Germany: working time dispute between Mercedes and the IG Metall Union
The news. At the beginning of September, Mercedes-Benz asked employee representatives and the IG Metall union to agree to an increase in the weekly working time from 35 to 40 hours, without any...
16 September 2026
6
Germany: major day of union action in the automotive industry ahead of collective bargaining
A few weeks before the start of collective bargaining in the German metalworking sector, the IG Metall trade union mobilised nearly 175,000 workers across more than 200 industrial sites on 21...
22 September 2026