News brief

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...
Italy: controversy at the CGIL on the platform to renew the collective agreement in the food industry
is consulting workers on the separate agreement on the reform of the conventional system (see our dispatch No. 090080), its food federation (Flai-CGIL) agreed with the other two federations, the...
Great Britain: the government questions “one-size-fits-all” approach to equal opportunities
es and Local Government (DCLG) has launched a three-month public consultation to improve opportunities for minority ethnic people. The consultation seeks recommendations, views and commentary on...
Great Britain: code of practice on remuneration policies in banks
he bonuses awarded in banks with high losses, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) proposes a code of practice on remuneration policies for employees. This code is currently subject to...
EU: national courts need to check if rules allowing automatic retirement answer to social policy considerations
rch 5, 2009, the Court of Justice of the European Communities (EJC) on the compatibility of British law, which permits employers to send to automatic retirement workers of 65 or over, with...
France: paid leave that isn’t taken because of a sick leave have to be transferred after work resumes
f the Court of Justice of the European Communities on January 20, 2009 (see our dispatch No. 090074) – which declared that national provisions ordering the loss of the right to paid leave...
EU: the European social partners are about to reach an agreement on the revision of the parental leave directive
(UEAPME, BusinessEurope, CEEP for employers and the ETUC for unions) are about to reach an agreement on the revision of their agreement on parental leave, included in directive 96/34. In the draft...
General Motors Europe: towards 3.500 job cuts at Opel
rmaker, GM, Opel’s employees are going to have to make major sacrifices to save their firm. Carl-Peter Forster, CEO of GM Europe – GM’s European subsidiary and Opel’s...
Brazil: new wage cut agreements in the metal and mining sectors
soared in January – from 6.8 to 8.2% – Brazilian unions accepted new agreements to cut wages and working time to avoid redundancies. (Ref. 090242) Vale Rio. Negotiations between the...
Spain: emergency measures against unemployment
nisters will adopt seven emergency measures to maintain employment, without waiting for an agreement with the social partners, who stay on their ground. Unions refuse to decrease contributions and...
EU: ETUC wants a directive on passive smoking on the workplace
federation (ETUC) published its reply to the consultation launched by the European Commission in October on passive smoking on the workplace. Unlike BusinessEurope (the employers’...
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
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
4
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...
5
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
6
EU: banking sector social partners commit to combating violence and harassment
On 15 January, the trade union federation UNI Europa Finance and three employers’ associations in the banking sector signed a joint statement on preventing violence and harassment in the...