News

Great Britain: government shows that race discrimination still exists upon recruitment
Africans and Asians are the first victims. The Employment Ministry’s study shows that workers with an African or Asian name are discriminated against when they apply for a job (see our dispatch...
Germany: Transnet and GDBA rail unions to increase cooperation to have more weight against the Deutsche Bahn
Two unions already quite close. To that end, on October 26 and 27, Transnet’s executive committee will meet, and the GDBA’s management will do the same on October 29 to talk about this...
Great Britain: government wants to remove default retirement age
While default retirement age should be revised in 2010 (see our dispatch No. 090737), the government decided to speed the process up and called on employers in large businesses to give an...
Lithuania: minority unions revolt against the future national Pact
Minority unions’ discontent with the agreement… While the main unions (Confederation of Lithuanian Unions, Solidarumas, Labor Federation) don’t deny that they will soon sign, with the government...
Italy: focus on agreements between regions and unions to face the crisis
Regions’ effort against the crisis. Agreements concluded between Italian regions and the social partners since the beginning of the year allowed “completing, extending and gauge” about anti-crisis...
Sweden: government wants to make funded pensions fairer
The reform proposed by the government affects the part of the Swedish pension system, mostly made up of “notional accounts.” A residual part (5% of contributions) is made up of a capitalization...
20 October 2009
Netherlands: Parliament extends short-time working after January 1, 2010
Originally, Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Piet Hein Donner wanted to decide after January 1, 2010 about a possible extension of short-time working (Deeltijd WW). Parliament decided...
Italy: home stretch before the creation of a big chemistry, energy and textile federation within the CGIL
Planned merger. Ratified at the last CGIL congress in 2006, the merger of the Filcem (chemistry) and Filtea (textile) was slowed down by efforts against the crisis and the separate agreement on...
Germany: open strike in industrial cleaning
For a global 8.7% wage increase. An IG BAU spokesman told Planet Labor that the strike won’t take place at the same time or in all businesses, it will be “flexible and unpredictable.” It will...
Ireland: unions maintain pressure to enforce the wage agreement
Wage cut. Today, Tuesday, October 20, 2009, the Irish government will meet with the social partners for an informal meeting. The revival of negotiations on the national social pact for 2016...
Spain: the works council of Opel’s Figueruelas site rejects Magna’s plan and calls for a strike
The El Periodico daily in Aragon pointed out that 25,000 direct or indirect jobs depend on Opel Spain and launched a campaign entitled “For employment at Opel.” It says that the Spanish site...
Spain: metalworkers call for a strike on October 28
Sectoral consequence of the national fracture in social dialog. This call is the implementation of the strategy unions designed last summer after social dialog attempts failed and after they...
Netherlands: coalition in power presents pension reform
Gradual increase of retirement age. On October 16, the Christian Democrats and the Labor Party, in power, reached a compromise on the increase in retirement age. It will go from 65 to 66 in 2020...
Italy: separate agreement for the renewal of the metalworking collective agreement
“One of the smoothest agreements in history.” This is how Roberto Santarelli, Federmeccanica’s chair, qualified the separate agreement for the renewal of the metalworking CCN, signed on October 15...
Great Britain: two-day national strike in postal sector
Mail will be totally blocked for several days. The CWU said that it made an offer to Royal Mail’s management, which the latter rejected without even looking into it. The company said the strike...
Portugal: two large employers’ associations merge to be more representative
Already contemplated in the past but never carried out, the merger between the AEP and AIP answers the need for organizational modernization and the “current national and international economic...
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...