News

Poland: government presents its ‘crisis shield’
On 18 March and following a Council of Ministers meeting, Polish President Andrzej Duda alongside Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced a series of extraordinary measures to limit the impact...
19 March 2020
United States: nationwide free coronavirus testing as well as paid sick leave
On 18 March, following several days of negotiations, the US Senate passed a package of coronavirus relief measures by 90 to 8. The package provides for free testing, food and medical aid, and an...
19 March 2020
Italy: banking sector employers pitted against trade unions over bank branch closures
On 16 March 2020 Italy’s banking sector social partners signed a protocol document to combat the coronavirus and protect both workers and customers. While the sector’s trade unions were calling...
18 March 2020
Spain: a package of economic and employment support measures
On 17 March, Spain’s Council of Ministers approved a decree law that will free up funds and make certain work-related legislation more flexible for this emergency period and ‘in a bid to protect...
18 March 2020
Argentina: initial measures limiting the freedom of movement plus recommendations to work remotely
Maximum effort to avoid the virus spreading during the initial development stages. On 16 March Argentina announced a series of measures aimed at avoiding the scenarios being experienced in Europe...
18 March 2020
Italy: €25 billion in Government support for businesses families and the health system
At a time when whole sectors of Italy’s economy have had to come to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic, on Monday 16 March the Council of Ministers adopted a decree-law, albeit not yet...
17 March 2020
Sweden: a package of support measures for companies and employees facing the coronavirus
In the week starting 16 March, Sweden’s government presented parliament with a series of measures to be definitively adopted on 19 March that seek to enable employers and employees to cope with...
17 March 2020
Austria: Federal government announces Covid-19 support including ‘partial unemployment’
On 13 March, Austria’s government announced €4 billion would be directed to support independent workers, maintain employment, and help businesses avoid insolvency in the face of the Covid-19...
17 March 2020
United States: the UAW and automakers set up a task force to tackle the coronavirus
The United Auto Workers union (UAW), together with US automakers has decided to set up a task force to address the coronavirus, the objective being to implement stronger protection measures for...
17 March 2020
Germany: law to faciliate short-time working measures adopted by the Bundestag with retroactive effect from 1 March
The law, which extends and facilitates access to short-time working measures to help businesses manage the Covid-19 crisis, was passed by the Bundestag on Friday 13 March, having been urgently...
16 March 2020
Portugal: simplified short-time working scheme and other business support measures adopted to tackle the coronavirus crisis
The new simplified regime enters into force on 16 March 2020 in order to deal with the coronavirus epidemic. The package of extraordinary measures adopted on 13 March also includes social...
16 March 2020
Italy: social partners sign protocol on measures to battle coronavirus in the workplace
Pressed by the government to establish uniform guidelines to guarantee the safety of employees in the workplace, the Cgil, Cisl and Uil unions and the employer organisations Confindustria, Confapi...
16 March 2020
Spain: employer and union organisations come together to demand exceptional measures to quickly ease impact of coronavirus
The CCOO and UGT trade unions, as well as the employer confederations CEOE and Cepyme, have together drawn up a document setting out their joint proposals for dealing with the coronavirus and...
13 March 2020
Argentina: new waves of branch negotiations to take place against ever uncertain backdrop
Sectoral wage negotiations are in full swing in Argentina, against an economic backdrop that is as uncertain as it is tough. These are the first such talks to take place since the centre-left...
13 March 2020
The ILO struggles to define its action for decent work along global supply chain
Momentum from the Centenary celebrations in 2019 (which saw the conclusion of a declaration and a new international convention on violence at work c.f. article No. 11189 and No. 11188) has...
12 March 2020
United Kingdom becomes legal battleground over EWC rights amid Brexit
Compared with other national systems that serve as the basis for several EWCs, the UK has provided a wealth of jurisprudence and the reason for this is an almost two-year battle between employers’...
12 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
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
4
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
5
United Kingdom: government “names and shames” companies that fail to pay the minimum wage
The news. On September 3, the UK government published a list of employers penalised for failing to comply with the National Minimum Wage. Nearly 660 companies were named, including fast-food chain...
4 September 2026
6
Spain: approval of decree on employees’ right to clear information on working conditions
The Spanish government validated, on September 8 in the Council of Ministers, the decree transposing the European directive on transparent and predictable working conditions. This text requires...
9 September 2026