News brief

Germany: wage agreement signed in the industry in west Germany against a crisis background
otiations, the IG Metall iron and steel union and employers adopted, on March 10, 2009, a new collective agreement for the 85.000 employees of the textile and clothing industry in the former...
Netherlands: 15% wage cut for postmen
group TNT Post (former TGP Post, national company) have to accept a 15% wage cut in preparation for the liberalization of the postal market. An agreement in principle – which must still be...
Spain: Supreme Court accepts double wage scale at Repsol Quimica
g, the chemistry branch of the Repsol oiler obtained satisfaction. In November 2008, a Supreme Court ruling overrules the case law. Beforehand, unions were supported in similar cases, and the wage...
Germany: the Grand Coalition wants to improve legislation on setting bosses’ wages
anagers’ pay and bonuses is still raging, the parties of the Grand Coalition, CDU/CSU and SPD, adopted, during a summit meeting on the night between march 4 and march 5, 2009, new rules to...
EU: the Commission’s annual report points to lasting delay in terms of gender equality
mission presented its annual report on equality between men and women. Even though women’s employment rate – 58.3% – is now close to the Lisbon objective – 60% – the...
Italy: record hike in appeal to partial unemployment
rmal partial unemployment of over 500% was recorded in the industry in February compared with the same period in 2008. The increase topped 1.000% in the iron and steel sector. Unions warn about a...
Italy: businesses cannot use fingerprints to control workers’ presence
ric identification systems to check if their employees are present and when they come in and out, except for security purposes. This is what the Italian Monitoring Authority on the protection of...
EU: the 27 Ministers of Labor are working on the social impact of the crisis
uropean Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs, gathered in Brussels for a Council of Ministers, discussed the social consequences and the impact on employment of the crisis. They insisted to...
Bulgaria: new compensation for employees when working time is reduced
bal economic crisis, which appeared to affect more seriously the national economy in the last months, the Bulgarian government has taken a step towards mitigation of the crisis’ effects on...
China: the end of an era for white collars
ars is the focus of this third chapter of our series of reports on “China and unemployment”. In control on the labor market, these employees are forced to lower their wage expectations...
Great Britain: businesses to implement road risk policy at the risk of heavy sanctions in the event of an accident
he new law on health and safety offenses, enforced in January 2009 (see our dispatch No. 090044), businesses which can’t prove that they have a road risk policy incur a fine up to 20.000...
Italy: the government is banking on large infrastructure works to revive the economy
banking on large infrastructure works to revive the economy. The interministerial committee for economic planning, gathered on Friday, march 6, gave around 17.8 billion euro to create about...
Netherlands: impact of the ECJ ruling on sick employees’ paid leave
sor of Labor Law at the Leiden University, thinks that the law on the paid leave of sick employees must be reformed after the ECJ ruling of January 20 which stated that laws which reduced sick...
Spain: unions and employers fail to renew their agreement on collective bargaining for 2009
o renew the interconfederate agreement on collective bargaining (ANC) for 2009. This agreement was easily renewed every year since 2002 to define the general framework of sectoral or company...
Netherlands: jobseekers obliged to accept any job after one year
alizes the measure announced in June 2008 (see our dispatch No. 080594) reforming the unemployment insurance system and forcing all jobseekers to accept any job after one year receiving benefits...
Argentina: business label certifying gender equality on the workplace
inean government launched a pilot program to promote gender equality on the workplace. The quality label will be awarded following several criteria such as staff recruitment policies, promotion...
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
EU: Commission launches consultation with social partners on quality jobs
On 4 December, the European Commission launched the first phase of consultation with social partners with a view to a European directive on jobs, which is scheduled for the end of 2026. It could...
4 December 2025
2
EDF bans alcohol on all its sites
From 1 January 2026, French energy giant EDF (180,000 employees) will prohibit alcohol consumption at all internal and external corporate events, from social gatherings to seminars. The policy...
26 November 2025
3
United Kingdom: government scraps plan to introduce ‘day one’ protection against unfair dismissal
The UK government announced on 27 November, in a statement, that it would not be introducing the right to challenge unfair dismissal (without cause) from the first day of employment in its...
3 December 2025
4
Poland: bill adopted to amend definition of psychological harassment
On 27 November, the Polish cabinet adopted a draft amendment to the labour code aimed at simplifying the definition of psychological harassment at work, or “mobbing” (Article 94 3)...
4 December 2025
5
EU: MEPs demand directive on algorithmic management
Members of the European Parliament have called for a directive on algorithmic management. Such legislation would introduce obligations for companies to inform employees, assess health and safety...
17 December 2025
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Austria: European rules on wage transparency expected to cause a cultural shock
With the gender pay gap in Austria being the second largest in the European Union (18.3%), the Austrian government has promised to introduce a bill next spring to transpose the European directive...
27 November 2025