News brief

United States: new act against wage discrimination
or, George Bush, President Obama chose to act from the very beginning of his term. On January 28, the President passed his first act, the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” named after...
Finland: the new Code of Governance consolidates transparency and enforces equal gender representation within boards
rnance Code came into force on January 1, 2009, reinforcing transparency of companies quoted on the stock exchange and pressing firms to ensure representation of both genders of corporate boards...
9 February 2009
Finland: the social partners reform unemployment benefits and pensions
izations – SAK for blue collars, STTK for white collars, AKAVA for university-level trades – and the confederation of Finnish industries (EK) reached an agreement on a major social...
EU: the European Commission focus its compromise efforts on working time directive on on-call time
their stand in preparation for the conciliation phase between the European Parliament and the Council of EU Ministers on the working time directive, last phase of the legal process. Whereas...
Netherlands: outcry after the announcement of double bonuses for ABN Amro managers
mplained after a double bonus was awarded to about 500 managers for the second year in a row. It is suspicious as to the fairness of this bonus, awarded to the highest levels of the hierarchy...
Spain: unions and employers’ organizations fight about the inflation rate to take into account for wage increases
nion confederations, defined the threshold for wage increases to 2%, while the CEOE employers’ confederation draws the line at 1%. After seven years of consensus on the prices defined in the...
Italy: the CGIL mobilizes against the separate agreement on the reform of the conventional system
he largest union confederation in Italy unanimously approved a strategy to object to the January 22 separate agreement on the reform of the conventional system (see our dispatch No. 090080) signed...
Slovakia: government proposes measures to support labor market
agged up a labor market support plan which introduces three new benefits for Slovak maintaining employment despite production cuts. These benefits could be available from March 2009, under certain...
Belgium: the Minister of Labor proposes to open talks on extending partial unemployment to employees
the Minister of Employment, Joelle Micquet, questioned on February 5, 2009 about the need to extend partial unemployment – currently reserved to employees with the status of blue-collar...
Brazil: several metalworkers’ and mining unions accept wage reductions to save jobs
jobs, more and more unions sign agreements with businesses to reduce wages. The phenomenon, coming at a time when the government announced a 12% minimum wage increase, particularly concerns the...
EU: the 27 open timid discussions on maternity leave
U27 opened, on Tuesday, February 3, discussions for the revision of the directive on the protection of pregnant women, the main measure being to extend the maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks...
France: the social partners unanimously sign the national interprofessional agreement on vocational training
anizations involved in the negotiation process since September 2008 (CFTC, CFDT, CFE-CGC, CGT-FO, CGT) as well as the Medef, CGPME and UPA for employers committed to sign the interprofessional...
Netherlands: working time reduction hardly extended
cial Affairs rejected half of the 90 requests for the extension of working time (Werktijdverkorting – WTV) sent by businesses after the first six weeks to which they were entitled. (Ref...
EU: the European Trade Union Confederation revives the debate on posted workers
y factory (see our dispatch No. 090112) in Great Britain revived the debate on posted workers. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) called, on Monday, February 2, for the adoption of new...
Netherlands: more flexible procedures facilitate the entry of highly-skilled workers
ts entering the Netherlands come from India, the United States and China, respectively 3.000, 1.850 and 1.170 people since January 1, 2007. These foreigners met the Dutch immigration...
United States: President Obama’s first measures for working conditions and union rights
lated by the Bush administration, American unions’ influence and members have considerably decreased in the last eight years. A few months ago, they put their faith in Barack Obama, and...