News Flash

Under the terms of the French Decree on Generation Contracts which was passed earlier this Spring larger businesses are required to act before October 1st 2013 and smaller businesses may decide whether they wish to take a poison chalice offered

As we predicted in our last newswire (25/04/2013) Switzerland has employed the “safeguard clause” provided for in its 1999 freedom of movement agreement with the European Union. From today (May 1st) quotas will apply to the issuing of long-term work

Portugal’s Economic Minister Alvaro Santos Pereira told a press conference following a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that “We want more investment and the main instrument here is the reform of the company tax that we intend to carry out via

The Swedish government continues to reject calls from the European Commission to reform its employment legislation to comply with the EU Directive on fixed-term workers (Council Directive 99/70/EC).

For the last six years the Commission has repeatedly demanded that Sweden

The Belgian government has complained to the European Commission about German “mini-jobs”, claiming that they undermine EU competition rules.

According to the Commission there are 7.5 million people working under “mini-job” terms and conditions in Germany. They may earn up

The Toulouse Appeal Court has heavily penalised the French postal service, La Poste, for employing a worker on successive fixed-term contracts (CDD) for a total of 22 years. The Court ordered the organisation to pay the employee 54,000 euros by

FedEE Secretary General Robin Chater will be chairing the 3^rd Annual Pan-European HR Forum on 23^rd and 24^th May 2013 in Berlin.

This event has been designed for HR Directors with a European, EMEA or international remit,

Although last month the French Constitutional Council blocked a proposed 75% marginal tax on those earning over 1m euros a year, the tax is now likely to still be applied – but imposed on employers rather than individual executives. The

Agreement has been reached between the EU Council of Ministers, European Parliament and European Commission on the updating of measures to minimise the exposure of workers to the risks arising from electromagnetic fields. The changes have been principally prompted by

The Dutch government has been in negotiations with national employer organisations and trade unions for the last few weeks over plans to make a number of labour law changes. The key proposals include:

* A reform of employee dismissal rules

The Italian statistical agency (Istat) has reported that in Q4 2012 the seasonally adjusted index of gross wages (fte) increased by 0.7% compared to the previous quarter (+1% in industry and +0.4% in services). Over the same period working day

In Ireland, new parental leave Regulations were signed by the Minister for Justice and Equality on 8 March. The Regulations increase the unpaid parental leave available to each parent from 14 weeks to 18 weeks per child and provide parents

The Polish parliament has voted against a government amendment to the Labour Code designed to provide greater working time flexibility and a reduction in Poland’s generous statutory overtime premium rates. The most likely change to be salvaged by the government

According to Germany’s Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health employee sick leave rose from an average of 11.3 days in 2010 to 12.6 days in 2011. The lost production due to such absence amounted to 46bn euros. The institute

Negotiations have begun in France between the organization PRISM and five unions (ICU-CGT, FO, CFDT, CFE-CGC and CFTC) on the establisment of a permanent contract for temporary agency workers (CDI intérimaire). This would help employers to escape the higher unemployment