Dear MIA Member,
VERY IMPORTANT - ACT NOW
I am urgently alerting you to the amended Working Time proposals, soon to be debated, again, in the European Parliament. It is the view of the MIA that loss of this opt-out will seriously limit current, acceptable working practices in motorsport and would damage UK businesses.
The MIA, and the CBI, is lobbying extensively to demonstrate to MEP's the importance of maintaining the opt-out for UK business, particularly at this difficult time. We need your support in helping us achieve this aim.
You may have heard that a “Common Position” was agreed by the EU employment ministers in June this year, which would maintain the UK's opt-out but with tightened rules around its use. This was agreed as part of a negotiated “package” with the Agency Workers Directive. This latter directive has now been approved by the European Parliament and the same must now happen on working time.
Revised Working Time text is currently being considered by the European Parliament. Worryingly, the Employment and Social Affairs Committee has already voted to support amendments which would “phase-out” the UK opt-out over a period of three years. The whole of the European Parliament will vote on this issue on 17th December.
The last time this issue was voted upon, many Labour MEP's voted in favour of removing the opt-out, against the UK Government's stated position. The vast majority of Conservative MEP's and the Liberal Democrats are predominately in favour of maintaining the opt-out but it is very important that we all ensure they remain so by making a strong business case over next few weeks.
As part of the MIA lobbying process, we urge you to write to your local MEP explaining the importance of the opt-out to your specific business, and more broadly, to businesses operating in the motorsport and high performance engineering sector.
Click here for a template of what such a letter may look like. However, we encourage you to take the opportunity to explain the particular importance of the opt-out to your business when you write. We have put a space in the template letter for you to add this detail.
Click here for a list of all UK MEP's, with their constituency addresses and email contacts and a map of European electoral constituencies in the UK for you to identify which MEP you should be contacting.
Please pass this request to any teams, suppliers or other companies in motorsport with whom you have contact.
Your support on this vitally important issue to the UK motorsport industry would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
Chris Aylett
Chief Executive
NB:-
1. Please do not refer to MIA in your communication to the MEPs - it is far more effective to present letters as separate initiatives.
2. Please avoid mass-mailing, especially cross-party - far better to send an individual email to each individual MEP.
If needing to send group emails (due to time pressure), we advise blind-copying the MEPs; addressing the email as “Dear Member of the European Parliament”, and blind-copying them in separate party groups.
3. In terms of copying in MIA , please only blind-copy to Jayne Thomas at the MIA.
Many thanks again for your support on this urgent and important issue.
