News

EU: MEPs request better acknowledgement of the impact of the economic crisis on women
Planet Labor, February 17, 2010, No. 100143 – www.planetlabor.com
Belgium: agreement on working and wage conditions for workers that aren’t covered by a joint committee
Residual committee. In Belgium, employers and union organizations negotiate working and pay conditions within the framework of sectoral joint committees. Yet, CP 100, created in 1074, is a...
Belgium: workers march and question businesses’ notional interests
Tense social context. These past few weeks, announcements of mass layoffs poured in Belgium. Opel Antwerp is going to close, putting 2,600 jobs at risk. In Jupille, next to Liege, AB InBev unions...
Germany: Federal Labor Court condemns booming low wages and thinks about removing “tariff unity” in businesses
The annual press conference of the Federal Labor Court was tainted with the economic crisis. Statistics and data Mrs. Schmidt presented on January 27 confirmed that.
Germany: Minister for Employment Affairs Ursula von der Leyen presents draft jobcenter reform
Unconstitutional mixed structures. Flagship reform of the “2010 agenda” of the former green and red Schroder administration, social welfare, managed by towns, and long-term unemployment...
Netherlands: government wants to prevent postal firms from practicing social dumping at all costs
The government appealed to the ruling rendered on January 5 which provided that the State wasn’t competent to force, via a regulation, the Sandd and Selektmail firms to hire 80% of its workers...
Italy: CGIL declares general strike for March 12
“The need to face the economic crisis and its impact on employment, the urgency to act at once to bring balance to the tax burden in favor of salaried workers and pensioners and amend the...
Great Britain: job offer, internship or training for every young person out of work for six months
Make sure young people won’t pay for the recession. This program, entitled “Young Person’s Guarantee” is part of the “Backing Young Britain” program that already helped around 100,000 young people...
Netherlands: reform of supplementary pension in the offing
Unions and employers have been saying it since 2006: nothing needs to be changed in the current supplementary pension scheme, which adds to basic pension (AOW). The financial crisis and the...
Germany: 200,000 agency workers get a 5% wage increase
An agreement which took time. The agreement signed affects about one in three temporary employees. It will enter into force on May 1, 2010 and expire on April 30, 2012. It provides for a first...
Brazil: CNM/CUT metalworkers’ union stands by Opel’s Belgian employees after the announcement of the shutdown of the Antwerp plant
The announcement of the closure of Opel’s Antwerp plant (Belgium) sparked off controversy in Brazil, among the National Confederation of Metalworkers (Confederaçao Nacional dos Metalurgicos, CNM)...
Slovakia: Parliament passed an act on extension of collective agreements
This reform will be a crucial change for many employers, because as of now the employers can get covered by the higher level collective agreement without any previous participation in the...
EU: three scenarios on the evolution of European jobs by 2020 in the Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Sectors
The sector’s characteristics. In the introduction, the authors of the report point out that the Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste sectors are all “essential to the functioning of the economy, and...
Great Britain: businesses to recruit fewer temps after the implementation of the European directive
Equal treatment. This law, hardly negotiated, first at European level and then between the social partners during the two consultations, is now in the hands of the Parliament (see our dispatch No...
Germany: IG-Metall sets employment as its top priority for the coming collective negotiations in the metal sector
New situation calls for new negotiations. Traditionally, metalworking and technical engineering, two key sectors for the German industry with about 3.45 million employees, open bargaining fire...
Great Britain: amendment to Equality Bill to banish health questionnaires from recruitment procedures
Government proposals. Currently, employers are allowed to ask applicants if they are disabled, take medication or have health problems – even though it isn’t connected with the job for which...
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
Netherlands: new government seeks to “control” social costs
In his government policy statement to Parliament on 25 February, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten announced several measures designed to "control" social costs. Notably, he proposed raising the...
2
Spain: a bill to regulate internships
On 3 March, the Council of Ministers approved the bill on the “Status for persons undergoing non-professional practical training in companies”. The text limits the number of interns a company can...
3
Germany: launch of the “WE-Fair” alliance for binational training of skilled foreign workers
Germany continues to expand and diversify its initiatives to attract skilled foreign labour from outside the EU. In mid-March 2026, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development...
4
EU: co-legislators aim to pivot European Globalisation Adjustment Fund towards restructuring anticipation
On 25 February, the Council of the EU and the Parliament reached an agreement on the Commission’s proposed regulation to expand the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). Under the...
5
Block to slash workforce by nearly half
The news. In his latest shareholder letter, Jack Dorsey, CEO of payment service provider Block (formerly Square), announced plans to slash the company’s workforce “by nearly half, from...