News brief

Spain: labour market reform adopted by parliament
Spanish members of parliament voted on 3 February to approve the labour market reform presented by the government. The bill passed in highly controversial circumstances, ranging from last-minute...
7 February 2022
United Kingdom: supermarket chain Co-op acknowledges that shop floor and warehouse roles are “comparable”
UK supermarket chain Co-op has voluntarily acknowledged that roles on the shop floor and in its warehouses are comparable, following in the footsteps of local competitor Sainsbury’s, which...
4 February 2022
Portugal: businesses entitled to claim compensation of €112 per employee for minimum wage increase
As of 1 February, companies in Portugal can register on a platform to claim compensation for the increase in the guaranteed national minimum wage, regardless of their legal status. The minimum...
4 February 2022
Great Britain: towards a single ‘worker’ status?
A Status of Workers Bill aimed at simplifying the status of workers is currently being examined by the House of Commons, after passing through the House of Lords at the end of January. Sponsored...
3 February 2022
Great Britain: the government maintains the increase in social insurance contributions scheduled for April
In a Sunday Times article from 30 January, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his finance minister Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed their intention to raise national insurance payments in April...
2 February 2022
EU: a pact to develop skills in the tourism sector
Launched by the European Commission on 31 January 2022, the call for’ reskilling and upskilling the European tourism workforce’ forms the backbone of the new variant of the Pact for...
Germany: number of pensioners in work on the rise
Germany’s Federal Employment Agency has calculated that the number of pensioners in work has increased by 30% since 2017. Looking more closely at the details, 300,000 people over the legal...
31 January 2022
United Kingdom: Deloitte introduces flexible public holidays
On 26 January, consulting giant Deloitte announced a flexible public holiday policy for its 22,000 UK employees, meaning they can opt to work on public holidays such as Christmas Day or Good...
28 January 2022
Germany: draft law for €12 minimum wage tabled
An increase in Germany’s minimum wage to €12 per hour – a central campaign pledge of the new chancellor Olaf Scholz – appears to be in the offing, as it is the first draft...
28 January 2022
South Korea: tougher sanctions for workplace accidents
South Korea’s Severe Accident Punishment Act entered into force on 27 January 2022, one year after it was passed by the country’s national assembly. Under the new provisions...
28 January 2022
France: at Kantar, the weekend starts on Friday at 3pm
Since July 2021, employees at the market research and consulting company Kantar Insights France have been able to stop work at 3pm every Friday. This measure, which was originally run on a trial...
26 January 2022
China: publication of the first five-year national plan for vocational skills training
Among the goals of the ‘special five-year plan for vocational skills training’ recently presented by the Chinese authorities, is the indication that State subsidised training courses...
Ireland: employers can only decline remote working requests on business grounds
On 25 January, the Irish government unveiled draft legislation giving employees with at least six months’ employment history the opportunity to request permission for remote working from...
26 January 2022
Netherlands: Achmea to allocate every employee a one-time €2,500 ‘climate budget’
Dutch insurer Achmea is introducing a new innovative company collective labour agreement, which was approved on 14 January 2022 by the two of the three trade unions, namely FNV Finance and CNV...
19 January 2022
Netherlands: Ikea launches a jobs inclusion programme for seventy refugees
The Swedish furniture chain plans to train 70 people with a refugee background in the Netherlands by way of a three-month paid work experience placement including a language learning course. At...
18 January 2022
EU: paid annual leave must be taken into account when calculating the overtime work hours threshold (CJEU judgment)
In a judgment handed down on 13 January 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that an employer could not exclude the “the hours corresponding to the period of paid annual...
18 January 2022
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
EU: social partners split over competitiveness and action on job quality
The European Trade Union Confederation and BusinessEurope have published their response to the consultation document on the European Commission's upcoming EU quality jobs initiative. The two...
4 February 2026
3
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
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...