Labour relations

Social partners from Germany’s banking sector, including both public and private banks, unveiled the result of their negotiations on the morning of Thursday 4 July. The new collective agreement...

5 July 2019

Germany: partial unemployment on the rise (in brief)

According to a survey by the Munich-based research institution, the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, 8.5% of companies are now resorting to partial unemployment measures, making this the...

4 July 2019

Great Britain: the gig economy – a threat or opportunity for British trade unions

With 4.7 million British currently estimated as working on a per-job basis across a variety of online work platforms, trade unions and experts in the field agreed to discuss with Planet Labor the...

3 July 2019

Belgium: chemical sector agreement signed for 2019-2020

On 26 June Belgium’s chemical sector social partners signed a sector protocol agreement, just weeks after the 2019-2020 AIP (cross-industry agreement) negotiations fell through (c.f. article No...

3 July 2019

Italy: hotel group Marriott and trade unions sign a document combatting sexual harassment (in brief)

In a first for the global hotel group, and according to the minutes from the 28 June meeting between management at Marriott’s nine luxury hotels and the trade unions (Filcams-Cgil, Fisascat-Cisl...

3 July 2019

Airbus: first ever Airbus Global Forum (AGF) meeting has been held

During the international Paris Air Show, the first ever Airbus Global Forum (AGF) meeting was held at the Airbus Helicopters site in Paris Le Bourget on 20 and 21 June 2019. An entirely voluntary...

2 July 2019

Italy: social partners in the insurance sector commit to tackling gender-based violence (in brief)

ANIA, Italy’s insurance sector employers’ body that comprises the country’s main insurance companies, along with the relevant First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, FNA, SNFIA, and Uilca trade unions have...

2 July 2019

BEL: an agreement that puts a European Works Council in place

On 20 June, cheese group Bel (which employs just over 5,500 across Europe) along with the SNB and with assistance from EFFAT (European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and...

26 June 2019

ENI: renews its global framework agreement (GFA) with IndustriALL Global Union

On 21 June, Italy energy company ENI, the global trade union federation IndustriALL Global Union, and three Italian sector-relevant trade unions renewed their GFA. In it the company commits to...

25 June 2019

Germany: failed agreement on the introduction of the 35-hour week in the former East Germany’s metal sector

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Germany is still divided. After an arduous seven-week strike in 1984, the 35-hour working week was secured in 1995 in former West Germany’s...

25 June 2019

Italy: innovative agreement struck at Luxottica

On 21 June, Italian eyewear company Luxottica (merged with Essilor) and trade unions Filctem-Cgil, Femca-Cisl, and Uiltec-Uil signed a particularly innovative company agreement (here) that will...

25 June 2019

United Kingdom: a non-European group may change the country of its representative agent for negotiating an EWC

In a decision passed on 18 June (here), a Central Arbitration Committee in the UK declared that the leadership of a non-European company, in this case Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE), may...

24 June 2019

ILO: Centenary Declaration sets human-centred agenda for the organisation

The 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia opened with these strong words: labour is not a commodity. It also established a series of primary objectives for the International Labour Organization –...

24 June 2019

Switzerland: what are the repercussions of the women’s strike of 14 June? (in brief)

Can the impact of the massive ‘women's strike’, which brought nearly 500,000 Swiss people onto the streets of the country on 14 June, be assessed? In the eyes of Unia, the largest trade union in...

24 June 2019

Germany: port operator Eurogate negotiates landmark automation agreement

Social partners at Eurogate, one of the largest port operators in Germany, with around 5,000 employees, penned a collective agreement “on the future” at the end of 2018, following several years of...

17 June 2019

United States: UAW union rejected again by workers at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Once again trade unionists from the United Auto Workers (UAW) have been defeated in elections at the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, a city in the southern state of Tennessee. The result came...

17 June 2019

1…65 666768 69…404

Our mind news

See all

France: La Poste to launch negotiations for an AI agreement

Following the lead of firms such as Axa, Syensqo globally, and more recently CDC Habitat, La Poste group management will open negotiations on an AI regulation agreement during the first half of...

5 March 2026

France: Crédit Agricole to tighten remote work rules

Crédit Agricole is to adopt stricter rules on remote work from mid-March onwards. The rules will be tightened for employees, but the maximum number of days working remotely will remain unchanged.

29 January 2026

France: Orange submits gender equality agreement – including AI provisions – for union approval

The three representative trade unions at Orange France have until 10 December to validate an agreement on gender equality, work–life balance and anti-discrimination measures. While the text...

8 December 2025

mind RH analysis – Initial findings from CSRD social indicators

In 2025, for the first time, the universal registration documents of major European companies contain the sustainability reporting required by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive...

31 October 2025

Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR

What readers clicked on the most last month.

In the category

What readers clicked on the most last month.

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

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

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

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...

8 October 2026

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

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