News brief

Netherlands: wage moderation and retirement at 67
omic recovery package presented on March 25, 2009 by the Dutch government is the increase of old-age pension (AOW) from 65 to 67. Moreover, the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) accepted...
EU: the gas sector to work on skills shortages, diversity, health at work and restructurings
al social dialogue committee of the gas sector, which gathers the EPSU and the Emcef for unions and Eurogas for employers, is getting its bearings. After a meeting on March 19, the sectoral social...
Spain: Workers’ Commissions propose a “State Pact for Economy and Employment”
, Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, CCOO’s new general secretary, defended dialogue and understanding between the government, unions and employers’ organizations to face the crisis better...
Belgium: Facebook banned from the workplace
mart Business Strategies specialized magazine shows that more and more businesses limit their employees’ internet access for personal use. Although the phenomenon isn’t new, it...
Great Britain: outreach workers to inform construction workers in their own language
of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified foreign workers as a particularly high-risk group in terms of health and safety. Polish, Romanian and Indian workers in London will now be...
Ukraine: bill to protect women and heads of households
March 18 to Parliament, is aimed at improving the protection against dismissal for employees with dependent children. It is part of the current policy aimed at protecting jobs (see our dispatch...
Germany: validation of “simple differentiation” clauses negotiated exclusively for union members
009 (Ref. 4AZR 64/08), the Federal Labor Tribunal rejected the complaint of a non-unionized employee demanding to benefit from the advantages exclusively negotiated by Ver.di for employee members...
Great Britain: Equality and Human Rights Commission calls for a radical reform of the equal pay act
air and transparent pay system, not women fighting in court says the Equality and Human Rights Commission, calling for an in-depth revision of the law, even beyond the bill on this issue the...
Sweden: the failure of negotiations on a new national collective agreement is a missed opportunity for reforming the industrial relations system
loyers’ association Svenskt Naringsliv announced its decision to interrupt negotiations on the renewal of the industrial relations system founded in 1938. The social partners had vastly...
Italy: “short week” spreading South to face the crisis
tors (textile, agency…), solidarity contracts (CdS) are relatively rare in the metallurgy sector, which the Cassa Integrazione (CIG, see our dispatch No. 080932) is the preferred method to...
Lennox Europe: establishment of a European works council
ope (1.750 employees) and the special negotiating body, composed of French (CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC, CGT, FO) and Spanish (CCOO, UGT) union organizations signed, on January 20, 2009, an agreement...
Spain: one of employers’ main think tanks proposes structural reforms
Empresarios presented a document entitled “New Solutions to Create Jobs”. The text, developed by one of employers’ most influential think tanks, analyzes current shortcomings of...
Philips: small impact of the EWC on restructurings
) met at the end of last week. The management announced that the company is in a difficult situation, without giving any details as to the number of jobs threatened in Europe. The Forum’s 23...
Great Britain: bill to increase redundancy compensation
ose its reputation of country where laying off isn’t expensive? A majority of Labor MPs and unions support a bill which would increase maximum layoff pay. The government is thinking and...
Germany: the IG Metall announces a new bargaining strategy to allow employees to access businesses’ capital
ating, Detlef Wetzel, number 2 at the IG Metall, announced that there would be “no more wage gifts for businesses”. If the managers of ailing businesses want to cut wages, in exchange...
Spain: Seat employees vote wage freeze to save their jobs
Martorell factory, near Barcelona, accepted a wage freeze for 2009 via a referendum. Unilaterally proposed by the UGT union, the initiative was presented as a measure to support the factory, with...
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: 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.
2
2026 TRENDS – Pay transparency becomes a reality for European companies
mind RH is taking a look at the trends that will shape 2026. Many countries remain behind schedule in transposing the EU Pay Transparency Directive, leaving companies in a state of uncertainty as...
27 January 2026
3
TRENDS IN 2026 — Reducing workplace absence at all costs: a major challenge for Europe
Workplace absence is on the rise across Europe, particularly among women, older employees and, since the Covid-19 pandemic, young people under the age of 30. Faced with this growing problem, some...
14 January 2026
4
Vincent Lecerf (Orange): “Equality and diversity are competitive advantages for us”
Following the signing of a new agreement on professional equality and diversity in December, the chief HR officer of French multinational telecommunications corporation Orange Group, Vincent...
13 January 2026
5
France: transposition of the pay transparency directive takes shape
The transposition of the European directive on pay transparency into French law is entering a decisive phase. The Minister of Labour, Jean-Pierre Farandou, wants to present the bill to Parliament...
21 January 2026
6
France: ‘bonus-malus’ system central to talks over short-term contracts
French social partners opened talks on 28 January 2026 on the regulation of short-term contracts, marking the start of a negotiating process set to continue with three further meetings in March...
29 January 2026