Monday, March 13th, 2023
The aim of the Bill is to distance the UK’s laws as far as possible, both practically and ideologically, from their historical connections with the EU by the end of 2023. The Bill seeks to erase, as if it never existed, the interpretive principles and settled decisions which the Courts have relied upon to give a settled and predictable meaning to tens of employment rights and obligations which were derived from EU law. The Three Principles are:
• Direct Effect
• Supremacy of EU law, and
• General Principles of EU Law
A few intelligent guesses may be made about the ‘most likely candidates’ for excision or revision, based on a balancing act between how much of a thorn in the side of business the regulation has been to date, versus how much uproar and business disruption would be caused by eroding specific workers’ rights:
• The Working Times Regulations 1998 have been much talked about as a ‘likely candidate’.
• The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) have been talked about in the press as a potential target for reform
• Other Regulations derived from EU law which may be revoked or amended include: the Fixed Term Employees Regulations 2002, the Part Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010
The implications of the above is, it will effectively remove rights such as equal pay, restrict holiday pay claims and remove the legal reasoning, that has helped to extend discrimination and other protections to atypical and gig workers.
