Germany: IG Metall signs an agreement reducing partial unemployment costs and extending fixed-term contracts
day, April 15th by the IG Metall union and the Sudwestmetall employers’ federation in southern Germany opens the way for the renewal of fixed-term contracts for four years instead of two and...
Brazil: 1,200 temporarily laid off at Mercedes Benz
in March, the German carmaker implemented several measures to reduce activity in one of its Brazilian factories making trucks and buses: 10% of the 12,000 workers of the site were laid off for 15...
20 April 2009
Chile: national strike against corporate policy to face the crisis
Chile’s key trade union, CUT (Central unica de trabajadores) called its members for a national day of action on Thursday April 16, which was successful throughout the country. The participants...
Belgium: negotiations down in the metallurgy sector?
ector is badly affected by the crisis in Belgium, the regional committee of Wallonia-Brussels of the FGTB union said no, on April 15, to the memorandum of understanding in the metal making sector...
Netherlands: social agreement in addition to economic recovery plan
resented by the Dutch government on March 25 (see our dispatch No. 090335) came with a wide social agreement which the social partners negotiated at length. Its key measure is the increase of...
Poland: arduous talks on bills deriving from the anticrisis package
veloped their “anticrisis action package”, mostly focused on labor law, the government sent its own propositions for measures. However, during the bilateral meeting of the social...
Italy: Cisl, Uil and Confindustria sign the confederal agreement enforcing the reform of the conventional system
growth, development of employment and increased productivity,” the two union confederations Cisl and Uil and the Confindustria employers’ association signed, on April 15, 2009, the...
Germany: temp’s Christian trade unions (CGZP) cannot negotiate collective agreements
n court on April 1 is going to revive the controversy on the introduction of minimum wage in the temporary sector. Indeed, competition between collective agreements signed by the CGPZ and the...
Netherlands: new union requirements on partial unemployment
Since April 1, businesses hit by the crisis can send their employees to partial unemployment, up to half their working time, for three months which can be renewed twice (see our dispatch No. ...
Lithuania: flexible Labor Code via collective bargaining
artite committee gathering the State, unions and employers looked at the Labor Code amendments proposed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute and the...
SNOP: establishment of a European works council
FSD, composed of SNOP SA, specialized in making metallic constituents for the car industry, and the SNOM toolmaker (nought in July 2008), has 2.403 employees in Europe. It is present in France...
Netherlands: CEOs’ pay strongly decreasing
the largest businesses listed on the stock exchange dropped by 21% in 2008, revolving around 3 million euro annually, says a study carried out by the De Volkskrant daily. This subject is closely...
Whikhahn: international framework agreement
With this agreement, the company, which only employs 600 people (400 at the headquarters in Germany), commits to respect the ILO’s international labor standards for all its employees. For the...
Great Britain: employers look for alternatives to laying managers off
How do businesses adjust to the economic crisis? According to the 2009 survey carried out by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the CELRE (the salary survey specialist), employers tend...
Siemens: the German multinational launches a real policy on diversity management
ng the Chinese Jill Lee to the post of “chief diversity officer,” Siemens announced the launching of several internal networks in charge of promoting women and young managers of high...
9 April 2009
Poland: conclusions of the second social summit
summit was organized on the initiative of President Lech Kaczynski. Gathering, notably, the Prime Minister, union and employers’ representatives, economists, local governments, this summit...
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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
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
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...
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
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...
6
France: generative AI and older workers central to BPCE’s skills management strategy
On 17 July 2025, BPCE and its trade unions signed a second agreement on jobs and career management within the banking group. The text places generative artificial intelligence at the core of its...