News

Netherlands: new light metal collective agreement postpones wage increases to 2011
Increases postponed to 2011. The General Employers’ Association (Algemene Werkgevers Vereneging – AWVN), affiliated with the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW), the...
Lithuania: towards the 4-day week with wage cuts?
Cut working time without employees’ consent. In fact, businesses willing to reduce the number of days worked by their employees, by appealing to short-time working, would be allowed to implement...
Portugal: priorities of the new Socrates government
Small and medium-size enterprises. Support will mostly be dedicated to introducing SMEs on foreign markets. In this respect, the government is going to unfreeze €250 million to support such...
Gras Savoye: agreement establishing the EWC
Scope and significant change of the legal structure. The new EWC affects all EU countries where the group has at least one subsidiary “whose accounts and annual totals are included in mandatory...
Denmark: SAS airlines failed to reach an agreement with all unions on cost-cutting program
After concluding, earlier this year, an agreement with unions on a cost-cutting program amounting to 1.5 billion Swedish crowns (almost €137 million – see our dispatch No. 090077), SAS presented...
Netherlands: TNT Post proposes alternative to unions to revive negotiations
Harry Kooistra Director of TNT Post, proposed, in a letter sent on Saturday, a new program. To get the negotiations on the future collective agreement and a social plan presented as unavoidable...
Great Britain: interim agreement between Royal Mail and the CWU pauses the postal conflict
Truce. After several weeks of conflict, the management of Royal Mail, the British post, and the Communication Workers’ Union, CWU, have buried the hatchet. A transitional agreement negotiated last...
Italy: social partners in the paper industry sign a unitary agreement for the renewal of the national collective agreement
War figure in spite of a unitary agreement. The unitary agreement for the renewal of the paper industry’s CCN was signed on November 4 in Rome by the Assocarta employers’ organizations and the...
Spain: Corporate Equality Label enforced
The Real Decreto 1615/2009 establishes the conditions to award and use the new “Corporate Equality” logo, which will allow distinguishing businesses carrying out active no-gender-discrimination...
Volkswagen: global Charter on employee representatives’ participation rights
This Charter was negotiated by the Global VW Works Council and the management. In its preamble, the Charter values performance and participation, which create the company’s culture. The first...
Denmark: analysis of the impact on the Danish system of the conflict caused by the renewal of collective agreements in the public sector in 2008
During the biggest conflict in the history of the public sector, in the spring of 2008, as part of the renewal of sectoral collective agreements, several experts were concerned about its...
5 November 2009
EU: the Lisbon Treaty’s social contributions
General institutional innovations. After much wrangling (see our dispatch No. 091001), Czech President Vaclav Klaus ratified the Lisbon Treaty on November 3. After the hazards of the ratification...
EDF: EWC mobilizes for EDF Polska’s employees
The “Trèfle” project affecting the EDF Polska subsidiary provides, in the long run, for the merger of the different entities making up this company. It should lead to over 300 job cuts and the...
Austria: metalworking negotiations stuck on flexible working time
Flexibility in exchange for wage increase. “Anything’s possible, because the situation hadn’t been that stuck in a long time” declared Hermann Haslauer, negotiator for employers, the day after the...
Sweden: debate on layoff order because of rising youth unemployment and difficulties for SMEs
SMEs want more flexibility to face the crisis. Anna-Stina Nodmark Nilsson, leader of the Foretagarna employers’ association, which represents SMEs (55,000 members), thinks that layoff priority...
Germany: Transnet and GDBA to merge to create a new rail union
Two unions, two sizes. The two unions, which have been working together since 2005, want to merge to better deal with the “drastic changes” which shook up the transport sector, the possible...
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
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What readers clicked on the most last month.
1
Spain: new terms and conditions for in-company training contracts
On 25 November, Spain's Council of Ministers approved a regulation on training contracts. This text defines the terms and conditions for hosting work-study students and interns doing professional...
2
France: sectors feel economic slowdown to differing degrees
The latest data on France’s occupational sectors (branches professionnelles), covering the year 2023, show how employment trends are shaping workplace dynamics. After a more favourable period for...
3
Germany: apprenticeship openings fall sharply in manufacturing and chemicals
From 1 January 2026, Dutch collective agreements for temporary employment agencies will alter the employment conditions of temp workers. Agencies will be required to pay these workers at least the...