News

Italy: sector collective bargaining mechanisms are defunct
Sector collective negotiations, which have governed Italy’s union-employer relations for over twenty years, would appear to have hit a roadblock. In the metals sector, deadlocked discussions over...
3 June 2016
EU: the European Commission invites the Member States to assess the adequacy of their national employment rules in light of labor patterns in the collaborative economy
How best to react? On the one hand the collaborative economy presents ‘considerable potential for competitiveness and growth’ not forgetting jobs. On the other hand, this economy raises several...
3 June 2016
France: a majority agreement for renewing social dialogue is signed at Solvay
An imperative for harmonizing social dialogue following Solvay’s purchase of Rhodia, the majority agreement signed on 31 May between management at the chemicals group and the union bodies CFDT and...
2 June 2016
Germany: the social partners together with the government recommend setting up ‘business laboratories’ to test mobile working
On 31 May the working group on ‘a digital working world’, chaired by Andréa Nahles, the Minister for Employment and Social Affairs and Jörg Hoffmann, the president of the IG Metall union, and...
2 June 2016
Germany: chemicals and energy sector negotiations get started
Following the recent conclusion of agreements in the metals and construction sectors it is now the turn of the important chemicals and energy sectors to renegotiate their sector agreements. At the...
1 June 2016
A study on management perspectives on European Works Councils
What do business leaders think of European Works Councils (EWCs)? What value-added do these bodies bring? Are EWCS cost-efficient? These were the questions to which researchers at the Belgian...
1 June 2016
EU: advocate general Kokott delivered the opinion that banning the wearing of an Islamic headscarf at work can be justified on the basis of a company’s policy of neutrality
Advocate general Kokott delivered an opinion on 31 May inviting the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to rule that banning the wearing of the headscarf in the workplace can be...
31 May 2016
Switzerland: On 05 June, Swiss citizens will decide whether or not to establish an ‘Unconditional Basic Income’
On Sunday 05 June 2016, Switzerland’s citizens will vote on an issue raised by the BIEN-CH association (Basic income Earth Network) to approve or not the introduction of an unconditional basic...
30 May 2016
United States: the end of unprecedented strike action at Verizon
Forty–four days of strike action at the US East-Coast telecommunications giant Verizon are set to come to a close following a guarantee to create 1,500 well paid US based jobs.
30 May 2016
France: rising protest levels against labor law reform reach a new level
The eighth day of demonstrations on Thursday 26 May calling for the withdrawal of the draft Labor Code reform drew between 153,000 (police data) and 300,000 (union data) participants. Protest at...
27 May 2016
Germany: the Federal Labor Tribunal allows certain supplementary pay elements to be taken into account in the minimum wage
On 25 May 2016, the Federal Labor Tribunal rejected a plea that a Christmas bonus and a holiday bonus, both of which had been scheduled for payment before the minimum wage had been made mandatory...
27 May 2016
Great Britain: the Government considering ways to change the steel industry’s pensions in a bid to save Tata Steel
No purchaser of Tata’s British interests is willing to take on the financial consequences of the employees’ pensions liabilities. Legally dissociating Tata Steel from the British Steel Pension...
27 May 2016
Germany: the government adopts an ‘historic’ draft law on the integration of migrants
‘Assist and insist’ is the primary principle underlying the ‘draft law on integration’ for asylum seekers that the Council of Ministers adopted on 25 May. This is a compromise text struck between...
26 May 2016
Hungary: government reinstates Sunday opening
Hungarians will once again be able to go shopping on Sundays. An amendment was adopted via the emergency procedure and undoes the current ban on Sunday shopping; a political measure that had...
26 May 2016
Turkey: coal miners stage a hunger strike deep in their mines in protest at unpaid wages
On 18 May eighty-five coal miners in northwest Turkey went down their mine and started a hunger strike to demand that their wages, which have been outstanding since the start of the year, be paid...
26 May 2016
India: three unsuccessful attempts to reform the country’s mandatory pension and unemployment fund EPF
Between March and May, the government announced three crucial reforms in the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) scheme; taxing 60% of EPF withdrawals, barring employees from full amount withdrawals...
26 May 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
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
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
6
France: bioMérieux strengthens its end-of-career support measures
The news. In vitro diagnostic specialist bioMérieux (4,400 employees in France) and unions CFDT, CFE-CGC, and CGT signed a new agreement on June 18, 2026, dedicated to end-of-career...
10 September 2026