News brief

Germany: IG-Metall wants to reform its structures and focus on recruiting members
ll, the largest trade union in Germany (2.3 million members), announced that his organization was going to change its structure and improve the resources granted to local offices. They will have...
Germany: substantial conflict could burst between Verdi union and the Deutsche Post
tember 14, 2009 in Berlin, Andrea Kocsis, VP of the Verdi services union, accused the Deutsche Post AG of using the economic crisis as an excuse to attack employees’wages and working...
Italy: beginning of negotiations between the social partners on employee profit-sharing
distribution of profit to workers” – demanded by Labor Minister Maurizio Sacconi to reach a ‘joint opinion’ with the social partners within two months – has been...
Austria: Austrian Railways (ÖBB) were illegally gathering information on their employees’ health
l of absenteeism, the ÖBB’s personnel service pressured employees to know why they were on sick leave. Classified in the employees’ personal files, such data wasn’t kept...
Poland: social conflict around the privatization of the ENEA energy group
ing, to privatize the ENEA energy group, relations between the government and the group’s unions have been particularly tense. Unions denounce the conditions of the privatization, in favor...
Great Britain: government toughens legislation on the recruitment of foreign workers
announced, on September 7, that employers will have to advertise jobs in jobcenters for a month (instead of two weeks) prior to recruiting workers from outside Europe. The goal is to limit the...
Germany: Supreme Court increases liability for compliance officers
e first time, the Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH) condemned a compliance officer to pay a fine for failure to prevent an infringement made by employees. This decision should put more...
Italy: towards a separate agreement for the renewal of the metalworking CCN
f the metalworking national collective agreement resumed on September 10, the Federmeccanica employers’ federation announced that it would only base the negotiations on the joint platform...
Spain: unions of the Santander bank propose closing agencies on Saturday to save money
unions of the Santander bank opened talks which should lead to closing the 3,000 national agencies on Saturday, therefore allowing the group to save 17 million euro. Unions proposed this solution...
Italy: tense start for Fiat with short-time working, Mobilita procedures and overtime
‘s unions are mobilized against Mobilita procedures, short-time working and “unilateral posting” of workers. On September 9, the mobilization of workers at Case New Holland in...
EU: ECJ subtly defines when the decision of the parent company sets off the obligation to consult workers
rday, September 10, the European Court of Justice introduces details, sometimes subtle, on when the obligation to consult workers in the event of mass layoffs decided by the parent company...
Austria: collective bargaining about to be tough in metalworking and civil service
s’ unions will open negotiations with their wage claims in preparation for the annual collective negotiations which will start on October 9, 2009. Negotiations in civil service and trade...
Germany: SPD and unions to help employees save their company
ement often “employee capital interest act” two social-democrat ministers, Olaf Scholz (Employment and Social Affairs) and Peer Steinbrück (Finance) presented, on September 8, the...
Netherlands: bankers propose limiting their bonus to one year’s pay
ks (NVB) presented a spontaneous and non-binding code of conduct on September 9 in Amsterdam to limit administrators’ premiums to one year’s pay. This symbolic progress doesn’t...
Italy: dialog slowly but surely resumes between the Confindustria and the CGIL
o (Lombardy) on Sunday, the leader of Confindustria (employers’ federation) and the leader of the CGIL, the largest Italian union, started patching things up while a major disagreement on...
Netherlands: Wessanen’s shareholders cancel the CEO’s golden parachute
ders canceled a CEO’s golden handshake amounting to three years’ pay on the grounds of bad results. This model decision still needs the justice’s approval. (Ref. 090830) In the...
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
Netherlands: new government seeks to “control” social costs
In his government policy statement to Parliament on 25 February, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten announced several measures designed to "control" social costs. Notably, he proposed raising the...
2
Spain: a bill to regulate internships
On 3 March, the Council of Ministers approved the bill on the “Status for persons undergoing non-professional practical training in companies”. The text limits the number of interns a company can...
3
Germany: launch of the “WE-Fair” alliance for binational training of skilled foreign workers
Germany continues to expand and diversify its initiatives to attract skilled foreign labour from outside the EU. In mid-March 2026, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development...
4
EU: co-legislators aim to pivot European Globalisation Adjustment Fund towards restructuring anticipation
On 25 February, the Council of the EU and the Parliament reached an agreement on the Commission’s proposed regulation to expand the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). Under the...
5
Block to slash workforce by nearly half
The news. In his latest shareholder letter, Jack Dorsey, CEO of payment service provider Block (formerly Square), announced plans to slash the company’s workforce “by nearly half, from...