The IUF-affiliated Food and Services Union (ACV-CSC) has successfully negotiated a local agreement at Danone Dairy Belgium's Rotselaar plant which strictly defines and restricts the use of non-permanent employment.

Paid maternity leave in the Philippines has been extended from 60 to 105 days under a new law which came into effect on February 20. IUF affiliates NUWHRAIN and the SENTRO Food & Beverage Workers Council played a significant role in winning the additional 45 days.

After 160 days of struggling for recognition and overcoming management efforts to undermine the right to freedom of association, the union of workers at Dutch-based global confectioner Perfetti Van Melle was granted legal collective bargaining status on February 17. The union is now preparing to bargain a first ever collective agreement for workers at the Gazipur factory.

Tunisia's national trade union center UGTT has condemned the exploitation of migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa in Tunisia and called for government action to protect their rights.

Hundreds of thousands of trade union members from across Italy came together in Rome on February 9 for a demonstration called by the three largest national union confederations demanding the 'populist' government act to ensure 'A future for work!' The unions are jointly calling for a massive government-led investment program and other measures to combat unemployment and reduce poverty and precariousness.

Independent trade unions in Algeria continue their long fight for rights in the face of ongoing repression. On February 3, police forcefully broke up a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Employment, Labour and Social Security by independent unions, including the IUF-affiliated SNATEG, demanding the reinstatement of trade union representatives dismissed from their jobs at the state electricity utility SONELGAZ.

UK and international trade unions joined Amnesty International UK for a demonstration at the Iranian embassy in London on January 29 to demand freedom for two imprisoned labour rights activists. Esmail Bakhshi, who works at the Haft Tapeh sugar complex in Shush, and Sepideh Gholian were arrested in November after having taken part in protests to demand payment of wage arrears owed the Haft Tapeh workers over many months.

The targeted dismissal of union leaders and members, the brutal destruction of the workers' solidarity camp and arrests of protest marchers have not deterred workers at the Hotel Tharabar Gate from taking public action to demand their rights.

Workers at Coca-Cola Indonesia fighting for independent and democratic unions have again confirmed their confidence in union leaders victimized by management. At a general membership meeting on February 5, Lutfi Arifiyanto was re-elected chairman of the independent SBMCC, the union of workers at Coca-Cola Indonesia in Bawen, Java.

Thanks to a sustained mobilization by Irish unions including our affiliate SIPTU, new legislation restricts employers from offering contacts with no specified minimum hours and strengthens protection for workers on variable hours, bringing greater protection and regularity on working time and pay.

Two recent decisions by an Amsterdam court mark a victory in the ongoing fight for worker rights in the 'platform economy'. According to the court, Deliveroo's elimination of employment contracts and the legal transformation of couriers to self-employed status last year had not altered the fundamental relationship of authority and dependence: the couriers remained in an employment relationship as defined in Dutch law.

The IUF and Spanish-based Meliá Hotels International have signed an agreement on preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, the first such agreement between the IUF and an international hotel chain.

Over 500 production, maintenance and sanitation workers at the General Mills facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa will now be represented by the IUF-affiliated RWDSU/UFCW following elections on January 9 in which a majority voted for union representation.