21 October 2019

The Institute of Employment Rights today published a timely briefing prepared by EU law expert Professor Nicola Countouris and IER President Professor Keith Ewing.

In this detailed report, Professor Ewing and Professor Countouris, who is Professor of Labour Law and European Law at University College London, compare the Brexit 'deals' offered by Theresa May and Boris Johnson in terms of how they will affect workers' rights.

They warn that while Johnson's deal retains a high degree of UK access to the European market, it drops the UK's commitment to maintain a level playing field with the EU on workers' rights.

The new deal is "extremely non-committal in terms of what will happen to UK labour standards after the expiry of the transition period", they explain.

"In plain English that means that future UK governments reserve their right to lower labour law standards and the EU reserves its power to limit access to the EU internal market if that risks giving an unfair competitive advantage to UK goods and services," they add..

Download the briefing