The Government has confirmed that it would significantly amend the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, listing out the specific EU laws that the Government intends to revoke by the end of 2023. This means that any retained EU law that is not included in the list will remain binding after the end of this year. The Government also published a policy paper announcing various employment law reforms aimed at growing the economy. These proposals were subsequently expanded on in a consultation and consultation response, both published late last week. This blog post summarises the key points from the consultation documents. The most significant proposals relate to non-compete clauses – set out further below.
Working Time Regulations (WTRs)
Record keeping about working time
The Government proposes removing the requirement for employers to have an objective, reliable and accessible record-keeping system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured. This is because the Government believes that these record-keeping obligations, which were introduced in 2019 following EU case law, are disproportionately burdensome on employers. The Government has committed to maintaining certain key provisions of the WTRs – including the maximum average working week of 48 hours (with its available opt out), entitlement to rest breaks of 20 minutes for a working day of more than six hours and special protections for young and night workers. It is unclear how many...
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