News brief

Brazil: government and car industry sign pact to protect employment
ed to unfreeze $650 million to stimulate demand for cars and motorcycles. In exchange, car manufacturers will have to maintain the current level of employment in the mid term. Nevertheless...
Belgium: negotiations on extending partial unemployment to employees stopped
union and employers’ representatives, had until April 1 to reach an agreement on the extension of partial unemployment to white-collar workers. Negotiations failed on the morning of April 2...
Germany: Daimler enhances savings program
global crisis, the German carmaker, Daimler, wants employees to make substantial sacrifices. On the eve of the beginning of negotiations with its works council on a new savings plan, the...
EU: ETUC wants to unite social protest to put people first
federation (ETUC) will organize four Euro-demonstrations in European capitals. The European organization wants to place citizens “at the heart of its priorities” and calls for the...
Dexia: ongoing negotiations on the implementation of the group’s “transformation plan”
n was announced in January, talks are flying around within Dexia’s EWC and in the countries affected, i.e. France, Luxembourg and Belgium. (Ref. 090365) Staff representatives’...
Italy: a majority of Piaggio employees approved the company agreement rejected by the Fiom-CGIL
oyees consulted via a referendum on the company agreement signed by the Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil but rejected by the Fiom approved the agreement. While underlying that most workers rejected it, the...
International: European Court of Human Rights limits collective action’s nuisance right
h 5, 2009, the European Court of Human Rights judged that “the total block, repeatedly, of road traffic on the highway went beyond the usual inconvenience inhering in any...
EU: working time directive might be shelved after yet another failed conciliation
tiations which ended early in the morning, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers couldn’t reach an agreement on the draft revision of the working time directive, currently...
Safran: first plenary meeting for the EWC
ployees) met for the first time on March 25, 2009. It elected bureau members and the council’s secretary. Two days dedicated to training preceded the meeting. The first, in February...
Great Britain: unions and employers mobilized to save the industry, poorly defended by the government
employers unanimously welcome the campaign launched by Unite. They met to propose an emergency assistance strategy for the industry and its jobs. The government, which made many promises but gave...
France: framing managers’ pay in businesses helped by the State
10, the managers of businesses which, because of the crisis, were helped by the State or receive public funds will have to give up their stock options and free shares and accept close supervision...
France: special status businesses must take account of work performed in an undertaking located in another Member State
rt rendered a ruling bringing a new solution and forcing businesses with a special status to think about recruitment conditions and the careers of collaborators who used to work in an undertaking...
Argentina: labor court judge imposes collective sentence to a group of businesses in a case of unfair dismissals
ember 18, 2008, the Labor Court of Buenos Aires gave an unseen sentence, condemning a group of businesses to pay compensation for unfair dismissals. Indeed, the judges decided to take account of...
Belgium: judiciarization of social conflicts at Carrefour
of Mons rendered, on March 25, an ordinance giving satisfaction to Carrefour’s employees, who exercised their right to strike in October 2008. Unions contested the management’s...
Netherlands: friendly agreement on bonuses in the finance sector
or Minister for Finance, concluded a friendly agreement with bankers, insurers and pension funds on remuneration policy. (Ref. 090360) During this informal meeting, it was agreed that the wages of...
Germany: IG Metall ready to compromise to save Opel
d visit by Angela Merkel (CDU) on March 31, 2009 at the head office of Opel, German subsidiary of the American General Motors in Russelsheim, the IG Metall union indirectly put pressure on 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
Oliver Dietrich (IG Metall): “The advent of AI can be a means of deepening social partnership within companies”
In Germany, trade unions want to influence how AI is deployed in companies. Oliver Dietrich is an AI project manager at the regional office of the IG Metall trade union in North Rhine-Westphalia...
2
Germany: collective bargaining negotiations begin in chemical industry
Collective bargaining talks in Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries are due to open this week, covering nearly 580,000 employees across around 1,700 companies. With the sector facing...
3 February 2026
3
EU: social partners split over competitiveness and action on job quality
The European Trade Union Confederation and BusinessEurope have published their response to the consultation document on the European Commission's upcoming EU quality jobs initiative. The two...
4 February 2026
4
Italy: collective agreement for rubber and plastics sector focuses on new skills
A month ahead of schedule, the Federazione Gomma Plastica employers' organisation and the Filctem-Cgil, Femca-Cisl and Uiltec trade unions have renewed the collective agreement for the rubber and...
5 January 2026
5
Italy: new generational renewal agreement penned at UniCredit
The agreement signed on 30 December by UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest banking group, with the Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca and Unisin trade unions aims to continue generational...
6
France: social partner talks extend far beyond contractual terminations
After a false start on 3 December, French social partners resumed talks on 7 January 2026 on potential changes to the unemployment insurance agreement, including the rules governing compensation...
12 January 2026