News

France: PSA Sevelnord agreement revives debate on competitiveness agreements
On July 12, PSA Peugeot Citroën announced 8,000 job cuts across the country and the closing of the Aulnay site (Seine-Saint-Denis), which employs 3,000 people.  For the Sevelnord plant in Hordain...
24 August 2012
Germany: 9,300 Opel staff on short-time working
6 percent net loss of income.  What a sad birthday!  On the brand’s 150th birthday – Opel was created on August 23, 1862 –, the company’s management announced, with unions’ consent, that it was...
24 August 2012
Great Britain: 2011 strike statistics released
The government has published its annual statistical analysis of strike activity for 2011, showing that nearly 1.4 million days were not worked as a result of 149 strikes involving 1.53m workers...
Italy: Manpower’s new group agreement improves work-life balance
Saying that unions had shown “true realism and responsibility” in the context of “deep” crisis in the sector – which has also affected American temporary work giants –, Cristian Sesena, Filcams...
Corporate practices: in Kaluga, Russia, Volkswagen is training its own apprentices
Lack of skilled workers.  170 kilometers south west of Moscow, at the gates of the city of Kaluga, is a 400-ha production site, Volkswagen Group Rus, Volkswagen’s Russian subsidiary.  Created in...
23 August 2012
Germany: German-style apprenticeship set out to conquer the world
The ‘dual system’ on the fringe of the Atlantic Ocean.  In a workshop located one floor above the assembly hall of the American headquarters of the German chainsaw maker, Stihl, in Virginia Beach...
United States: bitter conflict end for Caterpillar
Caterpillar, the American giant, and the leaders of the IAM union have just signed a 6-year pay deal which is going to leave the union a bitter aftertaste.  This agreement covers 780 workers at...
Portugal: crisis brings working time up to 41 hours a week
In Portugal, the number of people working in average 41 hours a week has increased since the end of 2011. According to an employment survey carried out by the National Statistics Institute (INE)...
Great Britain: latest union membership figures released
In 2011, there were 172 unions with 7.26m members, of which fourteen unions with more than 100,000 members accounted for 86% of all membership. This represented a decline from 7.32m the previous...
Hewlett Packard: employee representatives vote the termination of the anticipation agreement establishing the EWC
CFE-CGC, the French union organization, announced in a press release published on July 26 that 95 percent of the EWC members of the computing group had decided to terminate the agreement...
20 August 2012
Great Britain: the annual report of the ACAS conciliation and mediation service shows an increase in cases of pre-employment tribunal claims
The pre-Employment Tribunal claims are open to both employers and employees to use to avoid lengthy and costly employment tribunals which have dramatically increased over the last ten years and...
20 August 2012
Siemens: new international framework agreement
In that agreement Siemens commits itself to fundamental workers’ rights such as equal opportunity and freedom of association and collective bargaining. The Agreement refers to the fundamental...
Valeo: new European agreement on CSR
On July 10, Valeo, the car part manufacturer, and its European Works Council signed a European agreement on corporate social responsibility. This agreement covers a wide range of subjects, such as...
Spain: massive turnout for the civil servants’ protest against austerity
United unions.  Turnout for the demonstrations called by the trade unions was massive across the country’s cities.  Six unions who’d never marched side to side before (UGT, Workers’ Commissions...
Suspension of the information thread – July 21-August 19.
The Planet Labor team is going on vacation. The information thread will therefore be suspended on the night of July 20 until the morning of August 20. The database remains available through that...
20 July 2012
Italy: Automobili Lamborghini SpA and Fiom-CGIL sign company agreement improving employee participation
“We’re increasingly projecting towards our strategic goal: being the most appealing employer in the industry.”  This is how Umberto Tossi, HR manager of Automobili Lamborghini SpA, presented the...
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
Italy: Enel signs agreement to manage the effects of AI on work
An agreement signed at the end of July by the electricity company Enel (31,000 employees) and the unions Filctem-Cgil, Flaei-Cisl, and Uiltec is pioneering in the Italian energy sector. It aims to...
7 September 2026
2
France: Bayer puts female health and inclusive parenthood at the centre of its equality policy
In a new agreement on gender equality highlighted by mind RH, Bayer commits to strengthening its parenthood policy. Furthermore, the company is anticipating pay transparency and introducing...
25 September 2026
3
Germany: Volkswagen cancels almost all collective bargaining agreements signed with IG Metall
The Volkswagen brand announced on 30 September that it is terminating 10 of its 13 internal collective bargaining agreements, effective 31 December 2026. The announcement, which the carmaker...
1 October 2026
4
France: final document on the work of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference
After six months of discussions between French social partners, the guarantors of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference submitted the conclusions of the discussions to the Prime Minister...
17 September 2026
5
Germany: working time dispute between Mercedes and the IG Metall Union
The news. At the beginning of September, Mercedes-Benz asked employee representatives and the IG Metall union to agree to an increase in the weekly working time from 35 to 40 hours, without any...
16 September 2026
6
Germany: major day of union action in the automotive industry ahead of collective bargaining
A few weeks before the start of collective bargaining in the German metalworking sector, the IG Metall trade union mobilised nearly 175,000 workers across more than 200 industrial sites on 21...
22 September 2026