News

Sweden: a roundup of the 2016 collective agreement negotiations
‘Much ado about nothing’. Thus Sweden’s 2016 round of negotiations come to calm close after having commenced amid much hot air and controversy. Recalcitrant unions toed the line and kept to the...
28 April 2016
Nokia: puts a support package in place for workers laid off after mass redundancies
As expected, Nokia’s acquisition of Franco-American rival Alcatel-Lucent has had significant social consequences. Although the Finnish group did not provide any global figures beyond 1,300 job...
Netherlands: PostNL postal workers conclude collective agreements over pay and working conditions
PostNL management and the trade unions FNV Public Interest, Union of Postal Employees, CNV Public Services and VHP2 have reached an agreement in principle over pay and working conditions for...
27 April 2016
Norway: towards more senior women in the oil and gas sector
The Nordic Research Institute, Norut has just published a study* on gender representation and influence in the oil and gas sector, which was commissioned by the employers’ body OLF and follows up...
27 April 2016
Inditex: the fashion retail group is turning to union experts for assistance in implementing the global framework agreement on fundamental rights along its supply chain
On 25 April the Spanish fashion retail giant and the international union federation IndustriALL Global signed a global agreement that will deploy trade union experts per country or region who will...
26 April 2016
Great Britain: the government unveils details of the new apprenticeship levy
The apprenticeship levy was introduced in the 2015 Budget. In a bid to reach its goal of 3 million apprentices, the government had announced it would be putting an apprenticeship levy in place in...
26 April 2016
Argentina: a banking sector agreement is struck and the metals sector starts to mobilize
Following negotiations marked by a series of mobilizations, a banking sector agreement was eventually forthcoming during Argentina’s overall sectoral negotiations. The trade union secured an...
26 April 2016
Great Britain: even City bosses are re-examining their own salaries
Is the era of the ‘fat cat’ coming to an end? This is the question that the UK is starting to ask itself as a shocking report, paradoxically presented by some of the City’s biggest leaders...
25 April 2016
Poland: independent workers to be able to unionize
At the end of March 2016, Poland’s Minister for Labor and Social Policy presented a draft law to the social partners for consultation on implementing legislation in line with the Constitutional...
25 April 2016
India: the draft law on child labor fans the debate on family work
The Labor Minister recently affirmed that child labor rates had fallen by 64% over the last decade and that he was putting forward a proposal to eradicate it completely. Unions, NGOs, and Nobel...
25 April 2016
United States: in a bid to mollify Uber driver demands to convert to salaried employees, the company will pay up to $100 million and offer new guarantees against arbitrary driver deactivation
Non-taxi, on-demand chauffeurs in California and Massachusetts launched a class action calling for drivers to be reclassified as salaried employees. On 20 April, Uber announced it had come to an...
22 April 2016
Poland: the government has three months to transpose Directive 2014/67/EU on the posting of workers
For several years, posted workers, with Polish posted workers being one of the EU’s main ‘exports’, have been vigorously criticized in terms of the risks for social dumping by countries with...
22 April 2016
Japan: modest wage rises from the 2016 annual negotiations
Japan’s annual springtime ‘shunto’ wage negotiations between employers and union have resulted in salary increases for the third year in a row in the country’s large companies, but also in the...
22 April 2016
EU: budget line is published to fund joint actions with EWCs, especially as regards training
The European Commission has published its annual call for proposals on “information, consultation and participation of representatives of undertakings,” which may then be exploited to partially...
21 April 2016
France: confrontation and social transformation for a CGT that is repositioning contest at the heart of its action
Since 18 April, and at 120 years of age, the CGT union confederation held its 51st Congress in Marseille, France. Delegates voted for a call to strike on 28 April (and perhaps beyond) in protest...
21 April 2016
Switzerland: citizens get to decide on multinational human rights due diligence (in 2018 at the earliest)
The Popular Initiative for “Responsible Multinational Businesses” has received more than 140,000 signatures since it was launched a year ago. 100,000 signatures is the required threshold for a...
21 April 2016
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
Germany: pensioners in work already common practice, study shows
As the German government steps up measures to encourage people to stay in work beyond the legal retirement age, a new study by the Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) – an independent...
2
Spain: government approves creation of ‘intern status’
The Spanish government has paved the way for the creation of a new status for "persons undergoing non-professional practical training in companies, institutions or public or private organisations...
3
France: social conference on labour and pensions to proceed without main employers’ group
The preparatory meeting ahead of the social conference on labour and pensions, which is set to decide on the pension system model and the funding thereof, was held on 4 November at France's labour...
4
Luxembourg: two pension reform bills submitted to parliament
After lengthy negotiations with the social partners, in mid-October the Luxembourg government submitted two bills to parliament aimed at reforming the pension system to ensure its long-term...
5
France: TotalEnergies steps up commitment on disability
On 9 October, French energy group TotalEnergies and all representative trade unions signed a new four-year agreement on disability inclusion. Taking effect on 1 January 2026, the deal aims to help...
6
Candice Guillot (Talan): “Our recruiters save just over 80 hours per year on administrative tasks thanks to AI”
Candice Guillot, group director of employee experience and HR performance at Talan (7,000 employees), outlines for mind RH her vision and strategy for introducing artificial intelligence at the...