News brief

France: tackling unemployment and preserving employment are the new Prime Minister’s top priorities
In his speech on France’s national 14 July holiday, President Macron presented the policy priorities for his last 600 days in office. The following day on 15 July his new Prime Minister...
15 July 2020
Germany: federal government confirms adoption of controversial draft legislation on corporate due diligence ahead of the 2021 elections
On 14 July, Federal Ministers of Economic Cooperation and Development, and Labour and Social Affairs, Gerd Müller and Hubertus Heil respectively, confirmed that the draft law on...
15 July 2020
Latvia: employers will have to justify to the tax authorities why they pay low wages to their employees
In a bid to do more to tackle the practice of paying parts of salaries in the form of undeclared (non tax compliant) cash, the State Revenue Service (VID) will be submitting amendments to the Law...
15 July 2020
Ireland: public consultation launched to inform guidance on remote working
The consultation was launched by the Irish Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation on 9 July and will run until 7 August in order to inform an update to guidance on remote working for...
13 July 2020
Hungary: Vodafone offers option of permanent remote work to employees in telephone customer services
Since the beginning of July, the Hungarian subsidiary of telecommunications group Vodafone has been offering its telephone customer service staff the opportunity to continue working from home...
13 July 2020
United Kingdom: High Court permits union to challenge government on lack of protections for gig economy workers
On 9 July, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain revealed that the UK High Court has granted the union permission to challenge health and safety legislation in the country. Amid the...
10 July 2020
EU: final adoption of the legislative package on road transport working conditions
The vote on 08 July by MEPs brings to a close a three-year parliamentary process on a package of three pieces of legislation aimed at improving drivers’ working conditions and ending...
9 July 2020
Ikea will return government aid for short-time working to nine countries
The Swedish furniture giant has announced its intention to reimburse EUR 500,000 to the Portuguese government for the salary support it received from the state to pay Ikea employees who were...
8 July 2020
Italy: Constitutional Court rejects one the Jobs Act’s flagship measures and returns more leeway to judges for setting compensation in cases of unfair employment dismissal
At the end of June, Italy’s Constitutional Court examined the constitutional questions raised by the courts of Bari and Rome over the criteria used to determine the severance pay due to...
7 July 2020
EU: ETUC and European union federations issue joint statement on involvement of workers in managing Covid-19 crisis
On 29 June, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the union federations IndustriAll Europe, UNI Europa (services), EFFAT (food, agriculture and tourism), EPSU (public service workers)...
6 July 2020
EU: the EU Commission takes a (timid) first step towards the recognition of the right to collective bargaining for self-employed workers
Thus the trap in which the self-employed find themselves ensnared. In order to redistribute the balance of power vis-à-vis contractor clients, the self-employed have to organise and...
2 July 2020
Germany: self-employed woman granted right to know the wages of male colleagues on permanent contracts
Germany’s Federal Labour Court (BAG) ruled in favour of freelance political journalist Birte Meier on Thursday 25 June, when she demanded the right to know the salary levels of her male...
29 June 2020
ILO convention on violence and harassment to come into force in June 2021
One of the main achievements of the last International Labour Conference, which took place in Geneva in June 2019, the Violence and Harassment Convention (C190) obliges the ratifying states to...
29 June 2020
Great Britain: more than 370 companies have now signed the “Women in Finance charter”.
Forty-two new companies have just signed up to this charter, the goal of which since 2016 is to raise female occupancy rates in positions of responsibility within the financial sector (c.f...
26 June 2020
Argentina: legislation being prepared to regulate telework
Once drafted by the Congress Labor Committee, the text (the necessity for which both government and opposition parties agree) could be examined during the next parliamentary session (still to be...
24 June 2020
Great Britain: vulnerable people can return to work in August
On 22 June, the government announced the imminent end to lockdown arrangements for those most vulnerable (most at risk of suffering from Covid-19). From 06 July those deemed vulnerable to...
24 June 2020
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...