News

EU: European gas social partners hanging on European Commission’s future choices
Segmentation.  Presented on November 10, 2010, this strategy should last until 2020.  It notably aims to make Europe less energy-greedy, to strengthen the domestic energy market, to make consumers...
United States: Barack Obama wants to review regulations
Barack Obama’s recent tribune in the wall street journal on the need to review regulations to adjust them to the 21st century is giving the business world a lot of hope.  In this tribune, the...
24 January 2011
Germany: IG-Metall wants to durably add political factors to the “calculation” of collective claims
Correct growing social imbalances.  In an interview published on his federation’s website, Oliver Burkhard, one of the union’s heavyweights, announced the opening of a debate within the IG-Metall...
Netherlands: short-time working to end on July 1st
In total, short-time working was used for 76,000 employees in 7,800 businesses, mostly in the heavy industry (24% in steel and 17% in metalworking).  Not a single file has been accepted since...
24 January 2011
Italy: driven by Fiat, employers want to quicken the “modernization” of industrial relations
Fiat’s boosting the “modernization” of Italian industrial relations is also shaking employers up.  Tomorrow and on Wednesday, Confindustria will meet with its management and then its steering...
Germany: GDL train drivers’ union threatens with a strike in February to defend its status of negotiator
GDL says this is an insult to train drivers.  After “the longest conflict in the rail industry,” the small train drivers’ union, GDL (34,000 members) obtained, in March 2008, the right to sign...
Germany: construction union IG-BAU claims for a 5.9% wage increase
Bring eastern and western wages in line. Sign of good will or tactical move, the construction union’s wage claim is slightly below that (6%) it presented for the last collective bargaining round...
Austria: real wages markedly decreased in 2010
The two studies Statistik Austria published this week confirm a trend observed in other countries, namely that, with or without the crisis, low wages are decreasing.  The Austrian wage index...
Great Britain: government publishes Pensions Bill 2011
This bill implements the reform enacted two years ago (Pensions Act 2008) to boost private savings, notably via automatic enrolment to professional pensions schemes.  If businesses don’t create...
Spain: outcry against plan to extend stores’ opening hours
When presenting his schedule of ongoing reform on January 11th, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced that he would ask the country’s 17 autonomous communities “concerted action regarding the...
Germany: mass rebellion from banks’ account managers against bill introducing threat of exclusion from public-sector employment
Central register and exclusion from public-sector employment.  Banking social partners have declared war against a new provision the government added to the bill on protection afforded to...
19 January 2011
Belgium: social partners sign cross-industry agreement 2011-2012
Indexation and wage norm.  The cross-industry agreement signed on Tuesday night provides for a wage norm 0.3% higher than inflation, i.e. a purely symbolic margin.  The social partners took...
Netherlands: special fund to recruit mailmen
In theory, postal firms had until January 1, 2011 to reach an agreement allowing them to recruit 80% of their staff with a labor contract, respecting the collective agreement in force.  This...
Italy: CGIL proposal to change representation and union democracy rules
On January 15th, the CGIL’s steering committee approved the proposal entitled “Democracy and Representation.”  Pointing out that “union freedom belongs to all workers and can’t become a variable...
Great Britain: fathers at the center of the government’s draft reform of parental leave
Paternity leave was already extended.  The regulations on additional paternity leave introduced by the last government and adopted in April 2010, considered as better than nothing, are still in...
Morocco: EU-Morocco partnership struggles to bear fruit on social and labor rights
Initiating synergy between the Advanced Status and Euromed.  This first meeting between the Euro-Mediterranean (Euromed) Moroccan network of NGOs and the equal Parliamentary committee for the...
17 January 2011
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: Yves Rocher convicted of breach of duty of vigilance for infringement of freedom of association
The specialised chamber of the Paris Judicial Court convicted Yves Rocher on 12 March for breaching its duty of vigilance. The group was sued by Turkish employees dismissed in 2018 by a subsidiary...
12 March 2026
2
Spain: business support package to tackle the economic impact of the Middle East conflict
The Spanish government approved a series of measures on 20 March to support companies facing rising energy prices. In return, these businesses are prohibited from making redundancies for economic...
23 March 2026
3
EU: Council adopts position on simplifying AI rules
The Council of the EU approved its position on 13 March regarding the “omnibus regulation” proposal, published last November by the Commission to simplify the AI Act. Confirming the...
20 March 2026
4
Germany: a corporate group supports local political engagement via its “Democracy Charter”
Large corporations in the Hesse region, surrounding Frankfurt, are defending local democracy by enabling employees to volunteer in local public life through an initiative dubbed the "Democracy...
11 March 2026
5
United States: Coca-Cola subsidiary sued by the administration over women-only event
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on 18 February that it is launching federal proceedings against Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast for “sex-based...
6 March 2026