News brief

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’...
Belgium: mailmen fight for decent wages and labor
en on strike for three days, until today, March 4, to ask for an increase of their status and express concern over the evolution of their job and the way the company is preparing for the...
Great Britain: agency workers targeted by government aid for vulnerable workers
ent Board, gathering the government, employers and unions, is meeting once again to fight against “abusive” employers. Agency workers, at the center of their concern, are targeted by...
Germany: SAP management and staff representatives reach a compromise on a new structure for the works council
ries into the parent company, in April 2008, led to a legal battle between the company’s management and staff representatives on the structure of SAP’s WCs. After several conflicting...
Great Britain: Unite rescues jobs in the automotive sector
y union, Unite, launched a national campaign to safeguard jobs in the automotive industry, in a context of redundancies and bankruptcies. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT)...
Germany: Deutsche Telekom and Ver.di call on a mediator to clear up their payroll differences
the fourth round of wage negotiations, the Deutsche Telekom phone company, and the Ver.di services union decided, on February 28, 2009, to launch a conciliation procedure and asked Henning...
Germany: Volkswagen to end all contracts with agency workers
-offs for others: Martin Winterkorn, chief executive of the German carmaker VW, announced in an interview with the magazine Der Spiegel (02.03) that the group is going to cut this year all the...
Italy: the Council of Ministers approves the bill on the reform of the right to strike
0% of union members must vote for it. Failing this, if the strike call is voted by at least 20%, it will be necessary for them to obtain approval by 30% through a “prior compulsory...
General Motors Europe: European mobilization to save Opel and Saab
s of the American firm mobilized throughout Europe to protest against the announced restructuring. Opel/Vauxhall and Saab’s employees are the main targets, while GM is planning drastic cuts...
Germany: in western Germany, the textile industry threatens with warning strikes
at the 3rd negotiation round of February 26, 2009 was “intolerable”, the IG Metall union (metalworkers), which demands a 5.5% wage increase for employees in the textile and clothing...
Austria: unions accept to reduce the time partially unemployed workers are protected against dismissal
strian Parliament voted an amendment to the law on partial unemployment, which legally brings it from 6 to 18 months maximum. Meanwhile, the social partners signed an agreement which enables...
Sweden: the economic situation jeopardizes unemployment insurance funds
omic crisis in Sweden, the number of jobseekers reached a record level in January 2009 – 7.3% of the active population – a level it didn’t reach since the 1970s. With dismissal...
Brazil: legal battle on dismissals within the Embraer aircraft company
for one week the 4.270 dismissals announced by the third aircraft manufacturer in the world, Embraer, until the conciliation meeting with unions. They ask the government to nationalize the...
Belgium: Volvo extends partial unemployment until summer
k, based in Gent, northwestern Belgium, announced the extension of partial unemployment measures until the end of June, at least. In February, Volvo introduced a system with two or three idle days...
Poland: the social partners keep talking about the crisis at their social summit
h No. 090194), a social summit held on February 25, at the request of President Lech Kaczynski, gathering unions, employers’ organizations, representatives from the government, local...
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
Netherlands: new government seeks to “control” social costs
In his government policy statement to Parliament on 25 February, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten announced several measures designed to "control" social costs. Notably, he proposed raising the...
2
Spain: a bill to regulate internships
On 3 March, the Council of Ministers approved the bill on the “Status for persons undergoing non-professional practical training in companies”. The text limits the number of interns a company can...
3
Germany: launch of the “WE-Fair” alliance for binational training of skilled foreign workers
Germany continues to expand and diversify its initiatives to attract skilled foreign labour from outside the EU. In mid-March 2026, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development...
4
EU: co-legislators aim to pivot European Globalisation Adjustment Fund towards restructuring anticipation
On 25 February, the Council of the EU and the Parliament reached an agreement on the Commission’s proposed regulation to expand the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). Under the...
5
Block to slash workforce by nearly half
The news. In his latest shareholder letter, Jack Dorsey, CEO of payment service provider Block (formerly Square), announced plans to slash the company’s workforce “by nearly half, from...