News

Netherlands: the government wants to propound the suppling up of the law on layoffs
Unions are threatening to boycott this year's main social meeting, a summit on involvement in the labour market planned for June 27. This reaction follows the government's announcement, on June...
EU: the European parliament adopted in a first reading its report on supplementary pension rights’ portability
The European parliament adopted on June 20 in a first reading its report on the portability of rights to complementary pension. Eurodeputies are in harmony with the governments negotiating within...
Italy: unions and managers are negotiating the pension reform
A global agreement before June 28, day planned for the presentation of the economic and financial programming document: this is the government's goal. However, numerous topics are dividing social...
Luxembourg: a group of companies reaching the 1.000-employee threshold are in the scope of the law on joint management
In a decision passed on May 15, 2007, the administrative Court specified that the law on joint management, which is applied to companies with over 1.000 employees with their headquarters in...
EU: European social partners’ common analysis of labour markets
European social partners are elaborating a joint analysis of the labour market and identifying its challenges. This initiative has several goals : give recommendations to EU and national public...
Germany: Deutsche Telekom and the Ver.di union adopted a compromise on the transfer of 50.000 employees
After weeks of strikes and an eight-day marathon negotiation, Deutsche Telekom's management and the German services union Ver.di ended, on June 20, 2007, their quarrel on the modalities to...
Germany: train drivers from the Deutsche Bahn could launch a strike at the beginning of July
The beginning of the summer period is about to be stormy in Germany. Indeed, the German train drivers' trade union (GDL) announced on June 19, that it would launch a strike at the beginning of...
Germany: the large coalition adopted a compromise on the creation of branch minimum wages
After a new summit meeting in the night between June 18 and June 19 in Berlin, the two large parties in power - the social-democrats (SPD) and the Christian Unions (CDU/CSU) - could not agree on...
Italy: employees from the private sector hesitate between leaving the TFR in the company and investing it in a pension fund
The June 30 deadline date is approaching but a majority of the 11 million Italian employees concerned has not yet decided what to do with their TFR ("trattamento di fine rapporto", elaborated in...
Ireland: the Labour Minister announced a reform of procedures before employment jurisdictions
The Labour Minister, Tony Killeen, announced on June 14, a reform of the procedures before the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT*). This reform's goal is to speed up the procedures before...
Netherlands: the Supreme Court limits the maximum load borne by employees
The federation of Dutch unions (FNV) is congratulating itself on a "historical" verdict, rendered on June 18, 2007 by the Supreme Court. A 23-kilogram limit was indeed set by the country's highest...
EU: minimum wage differences remain between member States
In January 2007, 20 of the 27 EU member states had a national legislation establishing a legal minimum wage. It could strongly vary, from 92 euros a month in Bulgaria to 1.570 euros a month in...
Germany: open-end strike started in the building sector in Lower Saxony and Schleswig Holstein
Agreement too high. Arguing the difficulties of the small and medium-size firms in their regions, the two regional associations (members of the ZDB federation) esteem that the federal wage rate...
EU : no-fault liability is not the only way, according to ECJ, to ensure the effective character of the employer’s responsibility for health and safety
The directive defines the scope of responsibility and not the nature of the responsibility.  For the CJEC the directive defines the scope of responsibility but does not define the nature or the...
EADS: interview with Frédéric Agenet, industrial relations’ manager
The EADS group signed, last April, with its European work's council, an intention letter with a view to extending the council's to representatives of employees working in countries located outside...
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
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What readers clicked on the most last month.
1
EU: Commission launches consultation with social partners on quality jobs
On 4 December, the European Commission launched the first phase of consultation with social partners with a view to a European directive on jobs, which is scheduled for the end of 2026. It could...
4 December 2025
2
EDF bans alcohol on all its sites
From 1 January 2026, French energy giant EDF (180,000 employees) will prohibit alcohol consumption at all internal and external corporate events, from social gatherings to seminars. The policy...
26 November 2025
3
United Kingdom: government scraps plan to introduce ‘day one’ protection against unfair dismissal
The UK government announced on 27 November, in a statement, that it would not be introducing the right to challenge unfair dismissal (without cause) from the first day of employment in its...
3 December 2025
4
Poland: bill adopted to amend definition of psychological harassment
On 27 November, the Polish cabinet adopted a draft amendment to the labour code aimed at simplifying the definition of psychological harassment at work, or “mobbing” (Article 94 3)...
4 December 2025
5
EU: MEPs demand directive on algorithmic management
Members of the European Parliament have called for a directive on algorithmic management. Such legislation would introduce obligations for companies to inform employees, assess health and safety...
17 December 2025
6
Austria: European rules on wage transparency expected to cause a cultural shock
With the gender pay gap in Austria being the second largest in the European Union (18.3%), the Austrian government has promised to introduce a bill next spring to transpose the European directive...
27 November 2025