Club Med: agreement on fundamental rights and transnational mobility
erranee and the IUF and EFFAT unions should soon sign an agreement on fundamental rights at work and transnational mobility in the Euro-Africa zone, thus organizing the mobility of migrant workers...
Sweden: analysis of the Sony Ericsson negotiated settlement in 2008 to lay off more than 1,100 people
The announcement of redundancies at the Kista site in Sweden. Only in October 2008 did Sony Ericsson officially announce the redundancy of 230 people in Lund and 550 people in Kista. In December...
Germany: partial wage agreement for 250,000 in the banking sector
l 22, 2009 shows the impact of the crisis on collective bargaining: the social partners in the banking sector negotiated for almost a year before agreeing on a 2.5% wage increase. The agreement is...
Spain: employers write a draft “crisis contract”
ation is surveying through political parties with a draft “crisis contract” in hand (less protective of employees, cheaper for employers) and is looking for Parliamentary support to...
Italy: steering committee of the CGIL prepares its strategy after the agreement on the reform of the conventional system
Representativeness challenge. The committee approved the rejection of the agreement on the reform of the conventional system (see our dispatch No. 090419) which “represents the unilateral...
United States: United Auto Workers negotiates carmakers’ recovery programs
ded to award an additional 5 billion dollars for General Motors and 500 million dollars for Chrysler. The two American carmakers, which had until March 31st to present “viability...
Belgium: unprecedented negotiation failure in the metallurgy
The five claims of the MWB-Metal. The MWB-Metal, the metalworkers’ union in Wallonia-Brussels, came to the negotiating table with five claims: 1/ The application of the Interprofessional Agreement...
Mexico: mining company Grupo Mexico allowed to dismiss 1,300 strikers
ction to the largest mining group in the country in its struggle against workers on the Cananea site, on strike for 21 months. The company should be able to close the mine and dismiss the strikers...
Finland: tough start for wage negotiations in the industry
Industries (employers, EK) and the Council of Finnish Industrial Unions (TP) split up, in late march, over a disagreement which predicts bumps in the road for the negotiations to take place within...
Germany: firms and unions work hand in hand to put off as long as possible the prospect of massive layoffs
Beyond the debate on bonuses and extravagant salaries of bosses and certain senior executives, the solidarity currently shown by unions and employers is perhaps only fleeting, but it really...
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...
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