News

Germany: steel industry workers obtain ‘Covid bonus’ and additional annual payments
On Saturday 27 March, social partners in the steel industry of norther Germany struck a new collective agreement for the 70,000 employees in the sector, in the Länder of North Rhine-Westphalia...
29 March 2021
Belgium: companies required to make online declaration of all workers on site
To facilitate monitoring of compliance with the requirement to favour working from home, as part of measures in Belgium to address the health emergency, the country’s national social security...
29 March 2021
Spain: collective agreement for large retailers provisionally renewed, integrating law on remote work
On 24 March, the trade unions CCOO, Fagsa, Fetico and UGT penned an agreement with Anged, the association of large retailers in Spain, which partially renews the sector’s collective agreement...
26 March 2021
Colombia: end line in sight for adoption of a bill regulating ‘telework in exceptional circumstances’
On 23 March on the occasion of its second reading in Senate plenary, almost unanimous approval was given to a bill regulating working at home ‘telework’ under ‘ad hoc, extraordinary or special’...
25 March 2021
Great Britain: agreement signed with oil and gas companies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050
On 24 March the UK government announced the implementation of another of its sector deal agreements called the ‘North Sea Transition Deal,’ the goal of which is to safeguard North Sea oil and gas...
24 March 2021
Germany: social partners disagree over trade unions rights to virtual employee access
Amid the pandemic and with employees often working remotely, German trade unions have been voicing concern over no longer being able to reach employees, and an example of which recently occurred...
23 March 2021
Italy: “Decreto Sostegni” to bring measures supporting jobs and the economy
On Friday 19 March, the Council of Ministers, the Italian government’s executive organ, adopted the support decree (Decreto Sostegni), which features measures including an extension to the layoff...
22 March 2021
Germany: what are the obligations for employers when it comes to Covid-19 vaccinations?
As of next month, company doctors in Germany will be able to make a full contribution to the Covid-19 vaccination campaign at firms across the country. According to VDBW, Germany's association of...
22 March 2021
EU Council of Ministers’ Legal Service provides opinion on the legal basis of the EU Directive proposal on adequate minimum wages
Governments will no longer be able to invoke the lack of EU competence in negotiations on the draft EU Directive on adequate minimum wages. Planet Labor has obtained the decision handed down by...
18 March 2021
EU: the UNI Europa Finance trade union federation and European insurance sector employers sign joint declaration on Responsible AI
On 16 March, UNI Europa Finance together with the European insurance sector employers – Insurance Europe, BIPAR and AMICE – signed a Joint Declaration on Artificial Intelligence ‘to encourage...
17 March 2021
Myanmar: call to textile companies for action in the face of repression on workers opposing the military coup
Six weeks after Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown by the military, opposition to the coup is not weakening, in spite of increasingly harsh repressive action, which...
17 March 2021
France: support measures extended to promote dual work-study recruitment and prolong a special workers’ purchasing power bonus (targeting ‘second line’ workers)
On 15 March, following the conclusion of a meeting with the social partners at the inter-professional level French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced several employment support measures which...
16 March 2021
Ireland: SIPTU trade union lodges complaint with European Commission to pressure government to toughen law on European Works Councils
The complaint was first reported by our colleagues at the Irish trade publication IRN. Ireland’s Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) has filed a complaint with the...
16 March 2021
Germany: Verdi and Talanx unveil pioneering agreement on an equity-based company pension model with no return guarantee
On Thursday 11 March, the trade union Verdi and insurance group Talanx presented a collective agreement to set up a company pension model based on social partnership. Three years after a law...
15 March 2021
Italy: Bayer trials flexible arrangements for working time and location
From 1 April until the end of the year, staff at Bayer’s Milan headquarters will experience a “new way of working”, of which the key feature will be the possibility of alternating between working...
15 March 2021
Spain: agreement recognizing the employee status of platform-based delivery workers (republication of an article published yesterday but not distributed due to technical issues)
On 11 March Spain’s Ministry of Labor announced an agreement had been secured with the social partners over a ‘Riders Law’ that frames the status of delivery riders working for digital platforms...
12 March 2021
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
Oliver Dietrich (IG Metall): “The advent of AI can be a means of deepening social partnership within companies”
In Germany, trade unions want to influence how AI is deployed in companies. Oliver Dietrich is an AI project manager at the regional office of the IG Metall trade union in North Rhine-Westphalia...
2
EU: social partners split over competitiveness and action on job quality
The European Trade Union Confederation and BusinessEurope have published their response to the consultation document on the European Commission's upcoming EU quality jobs initiative. The two...
4 February 2026
3
Germany: collective bargaining negotiations begin in chemical industry
Collective bargaining talks in Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries are due to open this week, covering nearly 580,000 employees across around 1,700 companies. With the sector facing...
3 February 2026
4
Italy: new generational renewal agreement penned at UniCredit
The agreement signed on 30 December by UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest banking group, with the Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca and Unisin trade unions aims to continue generational...
5
France: social partner talks extend far beyond contractual terminations
After a false start on 3 December, French social partners resumed talks on 7 January 2026 on potential changes to the unemployment insurance agreement, including the rules governing compensation...
12 January 2026
6
EU: banking sector social partners commit to combating violence and harassment
On 15 January, the trade union federation UNI Europa Finance and three employers’ associations in the banking sector signed a joint statement on preventing violence and harassment in the...