Yesterday the government published the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill which, if passed, will allow it to set fire to all employment and health and safety legislation derived from the EU. These plans were outlined in this year's Queen's Speech but, at the time, it was thought that the government would concentrate on removing barriers to trade rather than revoking swaths of established employment rights.
This assumption may be wide of the mark. The Bill aims to get rid of all EU derived UK legislation within the next 15 months. This means that the government will have to take positive action if it wants to retain many existing employment protections beyond 31 December 2023.
The Conservative government has been promising to 'protect and enhance worker rights' since the Brexit referendum. But the new Prime Minister hasn't made any similar promises and the Times newspaper reported in August, that a Liz Truss government would change the Working Time Regulations to remove restrictions on the 48 hour working week. In response, many unions challenged the new government to 'come clean' about its proposals for workers rights. But, so far, no reassurances have been given.
Instead, it's published this bill, which will allow it to make sweeping changes to employment law.
Background
Under the European Union Withdrawal Act most UK laws in existence on or before 31 December 2020 have been preserved. These are referred to as ‘retained law’. These includes UK domestic...
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