International specialists at IRS round up employment developments from across Europe, including the current state of play of draft EU employment legislation; an innovative global agreement on health and safety at ArcelorMittal, the steel multinational; and a French draft law on union representation, bargaining and working time.

• EU: Social policy state of play, July 2008  The first half of 2008, under the Slovenian EU presidency, saw a breakthrough in negotiations on the draft Directives on temporary agency work and on revising the working time Directive, although no progress was made on the draft Directive on the portability supplementary pension rights.