Dr Jonathan Lord, Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Employment Law, has issued the following statement on the potential implications of Brexit on the UK’s employment legislation:
“Leaving the EU will not change current legislation, but will more likely affect the future protection of workers’ rights. It’s highly unlikely that legislation introduced by the EU will be removed as it not only has be entrenched into UK employment legislation, but has been woven into the best practice for employers dealing with employees.
“The main ramifications of this historic vote will be felt in the future. What rights and regulations would the EU have delivered for UK workers? The protection of workers’ rights has been one of the key objectives of the EU, which has constantly scheduled future employment rights. In 2018 the EU General Data Protection Regulations is going to replace the current data protection directive.
“Will the UK implement this directive? It will take two years for the UK to extract itself from the EU, it’s an unprecedented move but it would be unusual for the UK to agree to future labour law from an institution of which it is no longer will be a member.
“The other issue is when the European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights will no longer accept cases to be heard. This will be written into the Brexit agreement, but it could affect current and imminent cases that want to utilise a court which could act independently of the UK legal process.
“Therefore it’s more likely that employment law already implemented will not change, but future law will certainly be influenced from the UK, although one would hope that the UK would still adopt the best practices of European law.
“The final consideration is the future role of trade unions. Elements of the Labour Party as well as some trade union organisations have publicly stated their resistance to the EU, due to its promotion of privatisation of national industries and also its depowering of the trade union collective agreements through the implementation of individual employment law protection.
“The trade unions will now presumably push for the protection of workers through collective arrangements rather than allowing the EU to implement individual legislation. It’s been a difficult position to negotiate for the unions as on the one hand they want to protect workers which the EU has done through individual employment law, and on the other hand they want their collective powers to be maintained as well as increased. I believe there will be more employment relations implications in the next few years rather than effects on employment legislation.”
