EU Elections Today – Time to Reflect on Why, Despite Brexit, Influencing EU Policy Remains Vital

Despite the UK’s impending exit from the European Union, the country will take to the polls today (Thursday 23 May) to choose which 73 members of European parliament (MEPs) candidates will represent the UK’s interest in the European Union. Although the UK MEPs selected will lose their jobs once Brexit is complete, UK businesses will still need a voice in Europe.

I recently joined several other European recruitment federations for a WEC (World Employment Confederation) Public Affairs committee meeting.  The WEC is the global voice of the recruitment industry, with members in over 50 countries. REC’s membership in WEC has given us unique access to international policymakers and insight on national labour market reforms and trends across the world. 

The WEC committee meeting was evidence of the importance of keeping a close ear to the ground with the happenings in Europe, as EU employment trends are likely to continue and impact those in the UK. Furthermore, the UK remains bound by EU law in the same way that it has done previously. Provisions have already been made to implement existing EU law into UK law following Brexit. More recently the government has committed to non-regression of EU law on workers’ rights and has committed to voting on new EU directives in UK parliament with a Bill on this issue promised.  

However, the Brexit delay has meant that the recently adopted Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions (scroll down the page to related content to find the 'Factsheet on predictable working conditions') will most likely apply to the UK. The Directive aims to ensure that all workers, including those on atypical contracts, benefit from more predictability and clarity as regards to their working conditions. The European Commission believe that this new legislation will cover an additional 2-3 million workers on atypical contracts, who were not previously covered by the former legislation. The EU Directive is applicable to workers that have employment contracts or employment relationships which includes atypical workers such as zero-hour contracts, casual work, domestic work, voucher-based work or platform work. At the time of writing, there are no allocated timeframes for implementation of this Directive,  however, EU Member States are expected to implement them within three years.

To help members navigate the often complicated waters of Brexit, the REC have pulled together a Brexit Hub to help members prepare for different Brexit scenarios. You can access the hub on our website here.