News

EU: gas social partners to raise businesses’ awareness regarding demographic ageing and the skills shortage
“The issue of demographic ageing and the skills shortage appeared as an obvious topic for social dialog given what the gas sector should expect” explained Didier Baur, EPSU representative and VP...
Germany: new government wants more flexible laws on fixed-term contracts and smaller supervisory boards
Restrictive laws on fixed-term contracts with no particular reason. Currently, the law on part-time work and fixed-term contracts (Teilzeit- und Befristungsgesetz – TzBfG), enforced on January 1...
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...
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: government submits draft on pay transparency
On 6 March, the French government sent social partners a draft bill to transpose the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The text provides details on the implementation timetable, corporate...
9 March 2026
2
Sweden: government delays transposition of Pay Transparency Directive
On 11 March, the Swedish government announced it is postponing the transposition of the Pay Transparency Directive. Having originally targeted an entry into force on 1 July 2026, it has conceded a...
3
Italy: Deliveroo and Glovo targeted by justice over courier working conditions
The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office has ordered two of Italy's leading food delivery platforms, Foodinho (Glovo) and Deliveroo, to be placed under judicial administration. According to...
9 March 2026
4
Germany: menopause issues finally gain corporate recognition
With 12 million women over 40 in the labour force, German companies and occupational health professionals are beginning to adopt support policies for those affected by menopause-related issues...
5
Denmark: government launches transposition of the Pay Transparency Directive
On 26 February, the Danish government submitted a draft bill to transpose the Pay Transparency Directive for consultation until 27 March. The bill sets an implementation date of 1 January 2027...
6
Valérie Decaux (La Poste): “Our older workers policy is based on individualisation to move beyond age-related-stigmatisation”
La Poste Group (nearly 200,000 employees in France) unveiled its first senior employment agreement in late February. The text outlines measures for early retirement assistance, workplace...