In the field of
social protection
Social protection, as defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, is concerned with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people's well-being. Social protection consists of policies and ...
, paritarian institutions are non-profit institutions which are jointly managed by the
social partners
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Social partners are groups that cooperate in working relationships to achieve a mutually agreed-upon goal, typically for the benefit of all involved groups. Examples of social partners include employers, e ...
(representatives of the employers and employees). In other words, the governance of these institutions is based on the equal representation of employees (normally the
trade unions
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
) and employers in their governing bodies.
The social protection funds managed by the paritarian institutions are set up through
collective agreements at the company, the industry-wide (such as construction sector, metal sector, etc.) or the inter-sectoral level, and they can provide several
social benefits
Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet Basic needs, basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social ...
such as
pension
A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a " defined benefit plan", wh ...
(in particular occupational pension funds), health care, unemployment, disability, paid holidays, and other such benefits.
Within the paritarian model there are two phases: in the negotiation phase, when a collective agreement between the trade unions and the employers’ representatives set up the social fund; and in the management phase, the signatory parties decide to manage their negotiated social funds themselves by establishing a Paritarian Institution in which they are equally represented.
Paritarian Institutions of Social Protection are widespread in Europe, especially in Western Europe and Scandinavia. The combined funds currently managed by the Paritarian Institutions of Social Protection total to a rough estimate of 1.3 trillion euro in assets and cover about 80 million European citizens.
In 1996, a European Organization the European Association of Paritarian Institutions of Social Protection (AEIP) was created in order to represent the Paritarian Institutions to the European Union. AEIP underlines the specific peculiarities of the Paritarian Institutions compared to other similar actors like private insurance companies or
mutual organization
A mutual organization, also mutual society or simply mutual, is an organization (which is often, but not always, a company or business) based on the principle of mutuality and governed by private law. Unlike a cooperative, members usually do not ...
s.
Even though of European origins, paritarian institutions also exist in other parts of the world like in North America, South America, India, and Japan.
Paritarian governance is also found in some
employee trusts.
Etymology
''Paritarian'' (from the French "paritaire"; "paritair" in Dutch, "paritätische" in German, "Paritetico" in Italian) means jointly managed on an equal basis (
parity basis).
References
{{Reflist
External links
OECD Guidelines for Pension Fund Governance, 5 June 2009Pension Fund Governance: Challenges and Potential Solutions, June 2008
Social systems