News brief

Belgium: public social action centers condemn exclusion policy within employment services
obseekers turn to social services because they are not entitled to unemployment benefits. This is what the Walloon Federation of Public Social Action Centers (CPAS) observed. On October 31, 2008...
Great Britain: construction firms use the worker black list, causing an outrage
ses drew up a black list of unwanted workers, revealed a study carried out by the Information Commission – an independent organization in charge of the protection of personal data. Unions...
Tesa: agreement on employee representation in the future European company
rmany of the European company status (SE), Tesa AG – one of the world leaders in adhesive tapes – is about to complete its transformation into an SE. In late 2008, the management of...
Italy: unions mobilize against the closure of an Indesit plant
electrical appliances maker, has confirmed its decision to close its dishwasher plant with 600 workers at None (near Turin) and transfer production to Poland. But unions are mobilized against this...
General Motors: management to explain its intentions concerning its Brussels subsidiary
an Commission, the managers of General Motors, GM US and GM Europe are going to meet, today Friday March 13, with the EU Ministers for Industry concerned by the situation of the carmaker...
Belgium: government announces three measures to combat age discrimination
ter for Employment and Equality, Joëlle Micquet, announced three new measures to increase the fight against age discrimination. This intervention follows the publication of an analysis on job...
Germany: wage agreement for Lufthansa’s cabin crew
ust avoided an unlimited strike of its cabin crew. After tough negotiations (see our dispatch No. 090072), the German airline’s management, the Ufo cabin crew union (Unabhängige...
Italy: first law on “guaranteed minimum income” in the Latium region
s and atypical workers who aren’t entitled to partial unemployment compensation or to any other form of social dampers, the Regional Council of the Latium (Rome area) approved the Guaranteed...
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...
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: Yves Rocher convicted of breach of duty of vigilance for infringement of freedom of association
The specialised chamber of the Paris Judicial Court convicted Yves Rocher on 12 March for breaching its duty of vigilance. The group was sued by Turkish employees dismissed in 2018 by a subsidiary...
12 March 2026
2
Spain: business support package to tackle the economic impact of the Middle East conflict
The Spanish government approved a series of measures on 20 March to support companies facing rising energy prices. In return, these businesses are prohibited from making redundancies for economic...
23 March 2026
3
EU: Council adopts position on simplifying AI rules
The Council of the EU approved its position on 13 March regarding the “omnibus regulation” proposal, published last November by the Commission to simplify the AI Act. Confirming the...
20 March 2026
4
Germany: a corporate group supports local political engagement via its “Democracy Charter”
Large corporations in the Hesse region, surrounding Frankfurt, are defending local democracy by enabling employees to volunteer in local public life through an initiative dubbed the "Democracy...
11 March 2026
5
United States: Coca-Cola subsidiary sued by the administration over women-only event
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on 18 February that it is launching federal proceedings against Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast for “sex-based...
6 March 2026