News brief
Trending topics
- Gender equality
- Managing the fallout of Covid-19
- Artificial intelligence
- Gig workers and the regulation of platforms
- mind Exclusive
- Collective agreement
- Older workers
- EWC agreements and recast directive
- Global Framework Agreements
- Corporate sustainability due diligence
- CSRD
- European Framework Agreement
- Skills
- Remote work regulations
- hybrid work
Germany: IG Metall abandons effort to bring 35-hour week to former East Germany
For German metals sector union IG Metall, making the industry’s working hours in former East Germany (currently 38 hours per week) the same as those in what used to be West Germany (35 hours...
13 December 2019
EU: postal sector social partners pen joint declaration on training
On 6 December, the European social dialogue committee for the postal sector adopted two joint declarations. The first covers the revision of the postal services directive and the second regards...
13 December 2019
Spain: unions claim new Ryanair contracts break the law
Sign the new deal or lose your job. This was the offer Ryanair made to the 164 employees at its base in Girona, north of Barcelona. The airline company had announced the closure of four sites in...
13 December 2019
Italy: Milan Appeals Court argues that working on public holidays is not obligatory, even in the tourist sector
On 05 December, in an appeal hearing, the Milanese Tribunal confirmed an initial court decision from July 2018 that had ruled in favor of two female workers for the Autogrill group, who had...
12 December 2019
EU: European Commission presents its Green Deal that focuses on employment
Prior to her investiture, the President of the European Commission had announced her desire for the EU ‘to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050’. On the morning of 11...
11 December 2019
Italy: does the ‘permanent employment contract with rising levels of protection’ that was instituted by the Jobs Act discriminate in situations of collective dismissals?
At the end of November the Naples Appeals Court referred certain measures in the Jobs Act, to both the Italian Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The issue lies...
6 December 2019
Switzerland: draft federal legislation en route for adoption that looks to offer caregivers two paid leave periods
On 04 December, Switzerland’s second legislature house, the Council of States, followed the example of its first, the National Council that on 23 September adopted draft legislation to...
5 December 2019
France: mass mobilization in public protest at pension reforms
On 05 December France embarked on a period of instability, the length of which is hard to predict. Although it is the transport workers, lawyers, doctors, gas and electricity workers and public...
5 December 2019
Austria: salary increases and a reorganization of salary categories in store for 130,000 workers in the Commerce sector
On 27 November, the Austrian Economic Chambers (WKO) Commerce sector together wit the services union Vida agreed on salary increases and a reorganization of salary categories for 130,000 workers...
4 December 2019
United Kingdom: bonuses for TSB bank managers and executives to be cut for missing its gender balance targets
On 03 December, The Guardian daily newspaper revealed that executives and managers at the Edinburgh-headquartered TSB bank will likely see their 2019 bonuses cut for failing to meet its targets...
- HR
- CSR
4 December 2019
Hungary: specific labor courts will soon cease to exist
As of 01 January 2020, Hungary’s labor courts currently dealing with private sector employee cases will cease to exist. Legislation adopted at the end of 2018 on labor tribunals (21 December...
27 November 2019
Italy: according to a ruling by the Court of Cassation, collective bargaining cannot prohibit intermittent work
According to ruling 29423 of 13 November (here in Italian), a collective convention cannot prohibit a company using intermittent employment contracts. The judges explained that Law 2003, one...
26 November 2019
Great Britain: almost 13 million workdays were lost due to mental health issues
At the end of October, the U.K.’s government agency responsible for workplace health, safety and welfare, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), reported that in fiscal year 2018-2019, 12.8...
26 November 2019
United States: Intel includes diversity as criteria for selecting legal service providers
In a statement published on 21 November, the US tech corporation Intel called on its corporate law departments, located in the US, to consider performance on diversity when using external law...
- HR
- CSR
25 November 2019
Great Britain : ONS calls on us to stop viewing 65 as the onset of ‘older age’
In its report ‘Living longer: is age 70 the new age 65?’ published on 19 November 2019, the UK’s Office for National Statistics clearly argues that considering people aged 65 as...
21 November 2019
India: Starbucks announces it has achieved gender pay equity and will continue to raise the female employee participation rate
On 05 November 2019, Tata Starbucks, a 50/50 joint-venture between Tata Global Beverages and the Californian Starbucks company announced in a statement (here in English) that its female...
- HR
- CSR
15 November 2019
Our mind news
France: La Poste to launch negotiations for an AI agreement
Following the lead of firms such as Axa, Syensqo globally, and more recently CDC Habitat, La Poste group management will open negotiations on an AI regulation agreement during the first half of...
5 March 2026
Crédit Agricole is to adopt stricter rules on remote work from mid-March onwards. The rules will be tightened for employees, but the maximum number of days working remotely will remain unchanged.
29 January 2026
The three representative trade unions at Orange France have until 10 December to validate an agreement on gender equality, work–life balance and anti-discrimination measures. While the text...
8 December 2025
In 2025, for the first time, the universal registration documents of major European companies contain the sustainability reporting required by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive...
31 October 2025
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...
5 March 2026
2
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...
26 March 2026
3
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...
13 March 2026
4
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...
6 March 2026