Spain: interview of Francisco Aranda, leader of the Association of Large Temporary Employment Agencies (AGETT)
are getting ready to bargain for a reform of public employment services and will mention, in this respect, the extension of temporary work agencies’ competences (see our dispatch No...
BNP Paribas/Fortis: cooperation between the two groups’ EWCs and unions
Whereas the fate of the takeover of the Belgian bank Fortis by the French BNP Paribas banking group is hanging on the court rulings expected in Belgium, the two banks' EWCs keep meeting "so these...
Unicredit: the bank embarks on vocational training
The EWC and the management of the Unicredit group adopted, in mid-December a joint declaration on "training, learning and professional development". Training is set as a fundamental value for the...
Belgium: the social partners adopt the 2009-10 interprofessional agreement
On December 22, 2008, the Belgian social partners adopted the 2009-10 interprofessional agreement, in cooperation with the government, which reconciles unions' major claims concerning the growth...
Mexico: 4.6% minimum wage increase after lobbying by companies trying to moderate remunerations to save jobs
Unions are expressing their discontent after this increased deemed limited, below the inflation increase curve. According to the commission in charge of arbitrating negotiations and defining...
Netherlands: manager gets his golden parachute in court
Jan Peter Schmittmann, 52, former leader of the Dutch operations of the ABN Amro bank, obtained, on December 30, 2008, an €8-million leave bonus. His employer, the second largest bank in the...
G4S: international framework agreement
The body of the agreement states that employees “have the right to organize unions in a free and fair atmosphere.” The local management is invited to facilitate union members’ access to G4S’...
Argentina: collective bargaining increased of nearly 40% in one year
The numerous social conflicts led to a major increase in collective bargaining during the third quarter of 2008. It increased of 37% compared to the same period in 2007. Most concern wage...
Czech Republic: national railway reaches collective agreement for 2009
The management of the Czech Republic's largest employer, Ceske Drahy (Czech Railways) signed a company level collective agreement for 2009 with participating trade unions in mid-December, after...
Spain: a new general secretary for the Workers’ Commission
ge (see our dispatch No. 081011). After a tight vote, the representatives gathered for the 9th Congress elected, on Friday, December 19, Ignacio Fernando Toxo, until then number 2 in the union...
Germany: postal minimum wage ruled illegal by second instance
The regional administrative court of Berlin Brandenburg confirmed a ruling of first instance rendered in March 2008. According to the judges, the federal government may not impose the rate of...
Brazil: businesses want more flexible labor laws to face the crisis
The Brazilian mining giant, Vale Do Rio Doce, took the lead of a protest movement requesting the government brings flexibility into labor law to face the production decline. Several Brazilian...
19 December 2008
Slovenia: social program of the new governmental coalition
e end of September 2008, the right-wing parties that formed the previous Government lost made way for a new collation of left-wing parties. Before appointing the new Government, the coalition...
Austria: social conflicts defused at the Austrian post and telecom
The two social conflicts which threatened to ruin holidays for Austrians and for the new federal government were defused, both at the post and at Telekom Austria. The managements of the two...
Italy: bargaining for the collective agreement at Fiat comes up against the crisis which leads to the closing of all sites for partial unemployment
The first meeting for the renewal of the company agreement of the group Fiat (see our dispatch No. 080805) was held in Turin on December 16, 2008. This is the first time such negotiations took...
Air France-KLM: interview with Gehan Colliander, former general secretary of the European works council
European works council, Gehan Colliander, left at the end of 2008. She goes back over the way the council managed to work from the two models of social relations – French and Dutch –...
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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...