PPE Membership Benefits

There are five key benefits of membership in PPE:

• The ability to participate directly in negotiations between European employers’ organisations and trade unions on employment relations matters.
• The right to be consulted on future EU labour and social legislation in areas where social partners have failed to negotiate or which lie outside the scope of such negotiations. CEEP also has the right to be consulted on other important policy areas including transport and procurement policy.
• The opportunity to lobby European institutions, either as individual members of CEEP UK, as representatives of all UK public service employers or in the name of public service employers in Europe
• The ability to shape implementation of European level agreements in the UK with our counterparts CBI and TUC.
• The opportunity to access European funding and in this way to work with UK and EU partners on issues of common concern.

Click here to register your interest in joining or read on for more information on the above points.

The ability to participate directly in negotiations between European employers’ organisations and trade unions on employment relations matters.

Around 70% of UK law and 90% of UK labour law originates directly from Europe. Unlike in the UK, at EU level, employer and trade union organisations have the ability to negotiate independently of the European Commission and national governments on any new employment regulations. It is only if the so-called EU social partners do not agree to negotiate, or negotiations fail, that the European Commission in able to seize the initiative to develop new employment-related legislation. This provides the unique and important opportunity for the parties closest to labour market realities to shape labour law in a way which best suits workplace realities. Directives negotiated in this way tend to be more easily adaptable to national circumstances in their implementation and include the Directives on parental leave, fixed-term workers and part-time work.

Employers and trade unions at European level also have the ability to reach agreements which are not directly translated into national legislation, but are implemented in a way which best suit the industrial relations traditions of different countries. Thus, for example, social partners at EU level have been able to avoid Community legislation on telework and stress and have instead been able to reach framework agreements which have been implemented in the UK through guidance rather than legislation. This also lessens the burden on employers.

PPE has been directly represented in these negotiations for more than 12 years and has been able to substantively influence outcomes to make sure that additional burdens on employers are kept to a minimum. This process provides a much more direct and reliable way of influencing legislative and policy developments than attempts to influence the European Commission, the European Parliament or indeed national government and is the main reason the PPE was established.

The right to be consulted on future EU labour and social legislation in areas where social partners have failed to negotiate or which lie outside the scope of such negotiations. CEEP also has the right to be consulted on other important policy areas including transport and procurement policy.

Over the past 12 years PPE has been very active in helping to draft CEEP (European) responses to such Commission consultations (for example on the gender pay gap, on the green paper on labour law etc.). Draft texts prepared by PPE members are often agreed by our European colleagues without significant amendments which means that the views of UK public service employers tend to become the views of European public service employers in many crucial policy and legislative areas. A recent example of a UK drafted opinion adopted by CEEP in Brussels is an important response to the Commission’s draft Directive on increasing rights to maternity leave.

The opportunity to lobby European institutions, either as individual members of PPE, as representatives of all UK public service employers or in the name of public service employers in Europe.

Such immediate access to key decision makers in the European Commission and European Parliament is only available to recognised social partner organisations. UK local goverment employers most recently used this access gained through membership of PPE to speak directly to senior officials in the European Commission responsible for reviewing EU legislation on equal pay – one of the key concerns of local government employers in the face of increasing equal pay claims. Such access allows us not only to have early warning of what the Commission are planning but also allows us to influence their decision making. Direct lobbying was also used in relation to the Working Time Directive.

The ability to shape implementation of European level agreements in the UK with our counterparts CBI and TUC

Recent examples in this area are the UK guidance on telework and on stress in the workplace. In 2009, PPE worked with the TUC and CBI to implement the EU framework agreement on tackling violence and harassment in the workplace. In doing so, we have been able to assure that the important issue of violence by customers and clients is acknowledged within the remit of this implementation.

This work also allows us to work more and more closely with key UK government departments such as BERR and DWP to represent a UK public service view in relation to UK employment relations and social and employment policy relevant consultations.

The opportunity to access European funding and in this way to work with UK and EU partners on issues of common concern.

This allows the valuable exchange of good practice and information. Recent examples have included work on equality and diversity practices; restructuring models in the public services and the development of good practice guidance on managing an ageing workforce. In 2009, PPE worked on a project comparing different EU public services approaches on addressing the question of equal pay and the gender pay gap. Our main interest lies in understanding whether other countries struggle with the same issues of backdating of pay claims, pay protection and a high level of pay claims jeopardising negotiations between employers and trade unions on such issues.

Become a PPE Member Today

To become a member, please submit your contact details to us, together with any questions you may have and we will contact your shortly after to discuss your application and provide you with more information.