The US-UK trade deal has been lauded for its efforts to save the UK car and steel industries and for lowering the tariff rates imposed by President Trump on exports from the UK to the US.
However, employee rights in the UK are more extensive than those in the US. For example, the UK offers protection against unfair dismissal, greater protections for redundancy, paid sickness absence with statutory sick pay, specific protections against discrimination and longer notice periods. And that’s not to mention the significantly greater annual-leave quota enjoyed by workers in the UK: a minimum of 5.6 weeks, compared to the USA where only public holidays are mandated and any other leave is merely customary.
The Trump administration has explicitly threatened to withdraw work from companies that comply with EU equality law. In the UK this refers to the Equality Act 2010, which provides protection against discrimination on the grounds of nine characteristics including age, race, sex and disability.
The US threat arrived in the form of a letter to EU companies, asking them to prove that they complied with a Trump-signed executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion schemes. Recipients were told not to “operate any programmes promoting DEI”.
Esther Lynch, who is the general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, countered that this may have been an unlawful request. Speaking at the Trade Unions Against Discrimination Conference in...
NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Wiggin and Dana is pleased to announce the launch of its new False Claims Act (FCA) Defense and Compliance Practice Group, created in response to a s...