International specialists at IRS round up employment developments from across Europe, including a major national agreement on the “modernisation” of the French labour market; pay developments and tensions in Poland’s booming economy; and an innovative family-friendly agreement signed in Spain’s savings banks sector.

• France: Labour market modernisation agreement signed France’s main employers’ organisations and four of the five principal trade union confederations have signed a ground-breaking national agreement on “modernisation of the labour market”.