News

Belgium: national conference on pensions
The Minister for Social Integration, Pensions and Urban Policy, Marie Arena (Socialist Party) presented to the Council of Ministers on October 3, 2008, a project of national conference on...
Spain: Seat and Nissan and Seat decrease production to face the sales drop
Decreased production at Seat’s. Seat (Volkswagen) told its employees that it needed to stop part of the production on the Martorell site, near Barcelona, to face the dropping sales. The company...
EU : EU ministers promises to speed up the revision of the EWC Directive
A fast approval of the draft Directive on EWC. After the support of the European Commission to the joint amendments of the European social partners (see our dispatch n°080643), the Council of...
Germany: the Hans-Böckler Foundation says the restructuring of Deutsche Bahn AG upsets the staff
Increased flexibility, work overload and fear of lost jobs in the aftermath of the restructuring of the German railway have sharply increased the stress of the remaining workforce after the...
EU: sectoral social dialogue mobilized against the Commission’s plans in terms of quotas for the emission of greenhouse gas
Within a few days, the European Social Partners of the steel and chemistry sectors stepped up to the plate against the planned revision of the Community system to change the quotas of emission of...
Great Britain: ID cards for foreign nationals as of November 2008
Chief measure of the government's fight against illegal labor, biometric ID cards will now be mandatory for foreign nationals willing to enter or stay in the country. The trade unions, together...
Portugal : the new labor code will be approved at the latest on November 7, 2008
The bill was adopted on its first reading thanks to the vote of the socialist MPs in majority. The two right-wing parties abstained, while the communists and the far left voted against. Two steps...
Italy : union representation and work at the center of the UIL 7th conference
Created in 1950, the UIL is the third Italian union organization with over two million members and two levels of representation: 1° horizontally through its regional unions, 107 provincial...
Valeo: the EWC organized transnational collective action
The European works council of the French motor vehicle equipment manufacturer Valeo (almost 70.000 employees in Europe) decided, during a bureau meeting on September 11, to call all the European...
Great Britain: minimum wage increase on October 1
Hourly minimum wage for workers over 22 increased of 3.8% on October 1, 2008. It went from £5.52 (around €7) to £5.73 (around €7.30). Workers aged 18-21 will receive £4.77 (€6) instead of £4.60...
EU: the European Commission chooses to postpone the revision of the directive on the involvement of employees in the European Company
Planned for this year, the revision of the directive which provides for the involvement of employees in the European Company will be delayed to 2009, when the directive on the regulations creating...
EU: UNI-Finance asked financial groups to request extraordinary EWC meetings
Since the American financial crisis is moving on to the old continent, the European trade union federation UNI-Europa Finance asked its representatives on 51 European works councils in the finance...
Denmark: agreement on using the internet and cell phones at work
The employers' organization Dansk Erhverv (DE) published an agreement signed on July 10, 2008 with the trade union confederation HK/Privat, which includes joint recommendations for a business...
Netherlands: a bill to make companies responsible of the first six months of unemployment
The center-left governmental coalition wants to give companies the possibility to be responsible for the maintained payment of their dismissed employees for the first six months of unemployment...
Germany: Ver.di and the Postbank sign a “home agreement” while the trial of strength in the banking sector is escalating
On September 25, the Ver.di union and the management of the Postbank reached an agreement on a moderate wage increase and a strengthening of job security. This is not always the case in the rest...
GeoPost: agreement for the establishment of a European works council
The management of the GeoPost group (20.000 employees) which gathers the express parcel subsidiaries of the group La Poste present in 30 European countries (Chronopost International, DPD...)...
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
Italy: Enel signs agreement to manage the effects of AI on work
An agreement signed at the end of July by the electricity company Enel (31,000 employees) and the unions Filctem-Cgil, Flaei-Cisl, and Uiltec is pioneering in the Italian energy sector. It aims to...
7 September 2026
2
France: Bayer puts female health and inclusive parenthood at the centre of its equality policy
In a new agreement on gender equality highlighted by mind RH, Bayer commits to strengthening its parenthood policy. Furthermore, the company is anticipating pay transparency and introducing...
25 September 2026
3
France: final document on the work of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference
After six months of discussions between French social partners, the guarantors of the Labour, Employment and Pensions Conference submitted the conclusions of the discussions to the Prime Minister...
17 September 2026
4
Germany: Volkswagen cancels almost all collective bargaining agreements signed with IG Metall
The Volkswagen brand announced on 30 September that it is terminating 10 of its 13 internal collective bargaining agreements, effective 31 December 2026. The announcement, which the carmaker...
1 October 2026
5
Germany: working time dispute between Mercedes and the IG Metall Union
The news. At the beginning of September, Mercedes-Benz asked employee representatives and the IG Metall union to agree to an increase in the weekly working time from 35 to 40 hours, without any...
16 September 2026
6
Germany: major day of union action in the automotive industry ahead of collective bargaining
A few weeks before the start of collective bargaining in the German metalworking sector, the IG Metall trade union mobilised nearly 175,000 workers across more than 200 industrial sites on 21...
22 September 2026