News brief

Germany: a tax-free Corona-Bonus for employees
Spring is the season of bonuses and other profit-sharing payouts, particularly in the automotive sector. Looking at the industry’s major manufacturers, bonuses amount to €5,900 at BMW...
15 April 2020
Hungary: companies allowed to unilaterally extend reference period for calculating working time to two years
Under Hungary’s labour code, the reference period for calculating average working hours in the event of unequal distribution of working periods over the year is a maximum of 16 weeks, except...
14 April 2020
Spain: government and social partners prepare for end of lockdown
Representatives of the CEOE and Cepyme employer organisations and of the CCOO and UGT trade unions have begun working with the government on an end to the period of lockdown, implemented to...
10 April 2020
EU: finance ministers give green light to financial support instrument for short-time work measures in member states
It is “in the spirit of solidarity and in light of the exceptional nature of the Covid-19 crisis” that the finance ministers of the European Union agreed, yesterday on 9 April, on the...
10 April 2020
United Kingdom: BT hands pay rise to non-management staff amid Covid-19 crisis
With demand for telecommunications services having skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic, giant of the UK sector BT has expressed its gratitude to staff by handing a 1.5% pay rise to the...
10 April 2020
Canada: supermarket executives take to shop floor
Managers are rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty. That’s the message being sent out by several supermarket chains. Loblaw, Empire, Longo, and the Canadian subsidiary of...
Great Britain: audit firms using sabbatical leave to deal with the coronavirus crisis
In order to lessen the financial impact of the health crisis, audit and consulting firms are looking into the idea of the sabbatical leave option. Thus, professional services firm Grant Thornton...
8 April 2020
Hungary: government announces a job protection program
On 06 April Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced via Facebook the launch of 5 economy support programs, including one that seeks to preserve jobs. Although the details of the jobs...
8 April 2020
Chile: President promulgates legislation instigating a minimum income guarantee
From May, state aid (IMG, Ingreso Mínimo Garantizado, Minimum Income Guarantee) will be paid to employees earning the minimum salary in order to guarantee a net monthly income of CLP300,000...
6 April 2020
Germany: Berlin plans to increase short-time working allowance
Hubertus Heil, Germany’s employment and social affairs minister, has announced that he will open discussions with social partners on the level of compensation paid to people placed on...
3 April 2020
Austria: social partner agreement for faster access to partial unemployment
On 01 April, the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ) announced that they had reached an agreement “for maintaining company...
2 April 2020
Enel: implements insurance cover for all staff globally who need Covid-19 related hospitalization
On 26 March 2020, Italian energy company, Enel Group announced an agreement was signed with the professional services and financial risk-mitigation firm Aon SpA to provide a “Covid-19...
1 April 2020
EU: European Commission puts unemployment reinsurance scheme on the table in a bid to support national partial-unemployment working schemes
Criticised for being slow to respond to the Coronavirus crisis, the European Commission has decided shift up gears. While the project has been under discussion for many years and was due to be the...
1 April 2020
Germany: crisis agreements struck at Deutsche Telekom and ThyssenKrupp
Two new ‘crisis’ agreements, which were negotiated by video-conference, were announced last week at two major German companies in diverse sectors and differing economic conditions...
30 March 2020
United Kingdom: government relaxes law on paid leave in response to coronavirus crisis
On 27 March the UK government announced that, under the Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, which will modify the Working Time Regulations 1998, employees will be able to...
30 March 2020
India: €20 billion aid programme launched for the poor
With the entire country under lockdown since midnight on Tuesday, following a spike in coronavirus cases, India’s government announced on Thursday a €20.6 billion aid programme to...
27 March 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
France: Cabinet adopts pay transparency bill
After several months of delay beyond the European deadline of 7 June 2026, French Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou finally presented the bill transposing the Pay Transparency Directive to the...
10 September 2026
2
Germany: IG Metall demands 5% pay rise amid severe pressure
Despite the crisis hitting the automotive industry, the leadership of the German trade union IG Metall announced on Wednesday 23 September that it would be asking for a 5% pay increase as well as...
23 September 2026
3
Italy: Crédit Agricole introduces a handbook on managerial behaviour
The document adopted in mid-July by Crédit Agricole Italia and the main banking trade unions goes beyond the proper use of meetings and emails. This six-point handbook aims to foster constructive...
3 September 2026
4
Spain: government revisits its draft decree on salary transparency
The Spanish Ministry of Labour has opened a consultation on the transposition of the European directive on salary transparency and the reduction of the gender pay gap. This decision follows a...
8 September 2026
5
Slovakia: 6% increase in the minimum wage from 1 January 2027
The news. As Slovakia’s social partners failed to reach an agreement during tripartite negotiations, Labour Minister Erik Tomas has decided to increase the minimum wage by 6% from 1 January...
1 September 2026
6
EU: Commission proposes a list of worker-related criteria for public procurement
The news. On 9 September, the European Commission published a proposal for a regulation aimed at unifying European public procurement law, which accounts for 15% of European GDP. It is notably set...
17 September 2026