News

Hungary: amendments to the Labor Code and to the workplace Health and Safety Act on January 1, 2009
Holiday entitlement (Section 134 Subsection 3). The new law enables to slide a maximum of five vacation days onto the following year if the beginning of the holidays started the year of...
EU: recovery plans for the auto sector to be coordinated at European level
The 27 EU Ministers for Industry all answered the European Commission's invitation to discuss, today, the situation of the automotive sector. The Ministers said they were ready to launch public...
Czech Republic: the citizens of 12 new countries are eligible for green cards
A list of countries whose citizens will be entitled to the green card was published in the collection of laws on December 29, 2008. This card, which contains a residence and a labor permit, is...
Spain: main axes of the 2009 action plan to revive the employment market
Celestino Corbacho, Minister of Labor, presented, on January 15, to the Parliamentary Committee, the guidelines of his plan to revive employment. The approach is comprehensive since it plans...
Italy: the Fiom’s central council confirms the general strike in the metallurgy sector on February 13
Gathered in Rome on January 13, the central council of the Fiom, the largest metalworkers’ union in Italy, approved four resolutions, including opposition to the government’s proposition to...
Germany: statutory minimum wage for six new sectors
Outside talks at the summit between Angela Merkel and her democrat social partners, bargaining for the details of a historical revival program (see our dispatch No. 090037), the parties of the...
Germany: railroaders and public employees open collective bargaining for 2009
The first collective negotiations for 2009 started with wage claims up to 8% for railroaders and employees from local public administrations. In spite of the downturn and the disastrous economic...
Germany: Daimler’s temporarily unemployed staff still gets up to 97% of their salary
Thanks to a framework agreement (Manteltarifvertrag) signed with unions in 2005 and the "Pact for the Future 2012", the 40.000 employees of Daimler subject to partial unemployment measures keep...
General Motors Europe: agreement with the EWC to reduce working time and avoid collective redundancies
While the German auto sector has been multiplying appeal to partial unemployment, the Opel car manufacturer, German subsidiary of general motors Europe, is in turn about to reduce working time. GM...
Great Britain: tougher penalties for health and safety offences imposed
The new Health and Safety (Offences) Act, which comes into force on January 16, will significantly increase both the maximum fine and the range of offenses for which an individual can be...
Netherlands: the Supreme Court forces an employer to compensate a second-hand smoker
While the European Commission recently launched consultation of the social partners on second-hand smoke (see our dispatch No. 090028), the Supreme Court of the Netherlands decided, on January 12...
Chile: 4 billion dollars to whip up economy and employment
Chilean MPs unanimously approved the government's plan to face the downturn. It contains two types of commitments: protecting existing jobs, by introducing tax advantages for businesses, and...
Italy: in Milan, unions and local authorities create a fund to help workers in danger of social exclusion
The Milan city hall and the CGIL, Cisl and Uil unions presented to the press, on January 12, 2009, the Fondazione per il Welfare Ambrosiano. The creation of this foundation was proposed by...
Netherlands: telework is booming
Telework and working from home, encouraged by employers' organizations and unions to reduce traffic, have been booming. At the end of 2007, half the businesses employing more than 10 people...
Poland: creation of a Confederation of Metalworkers’ Unions
On January 7, 2009, the representatives of three metalworkers' unions (the Federation of foundry unions, the union of electro mechanic industry, the Federation of "Metalworkers'" unions) approved...
Germany: the Grand Coalition adopts new partial unemployment measures
Whereas, in December, the number of jobseekers went back over the 3 million bar, the Grand Coalition agreed, within the framework of its second revival plan adopted on January 12, 2009 (see our...
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
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...
4
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...
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...