31 March 2017

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady has warned that that nothing in the Great Repeal Bill will stop judges from overturning workers' rights won in EU courts after the UK leaves the EU.

Frances O'Grady, TUC General Secretary, said: "The proposals for the Great Repeal Bill fall short of the Prime Minister's promise to fully protect and maintain all workers' rights that came from the EU.

"The government proposes handing the power to change important rights and protections at work that British workers already have to judges. This means that important rules to protect workers could be overturned, without the UK Parliament having any say. The protections affected could include your rights to full holiday pay, equal pay for women, stopping indirect discrimination because of your race or gender, and help for workers when they are outsourced to a new boss."

Yesterday, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs Brexit secretaries, and legal experts, warned that the new Henry VIII powers for government to modify EU laws through secondary legislation – which does not require a vote in parliament – could lead to employment protections from being overturned or degraded by Conservative politicians.

Frances O'Grady agreed that the "wide-ranging powers" ministers have given themselves could lead to a dilution of rights like the Working Time Directive, equal treatment for agency workers, and redundancy protections.

"The Prime Minister needs to think again. She should carve out a specific exemption in the Great Repeal Bill to stop holes being punched in the rights that working people in Britain currently have," she said.

"The Prime Minister must also make good on her promise to build on workers’ rights by putting them at the heart of the UK’s future trade deal with the EU. There must be a guarantee of a level playing field with our EU partners – not a race to the bottom on workplace rights. We don’t want hardworking Brits to miss out on new rights that workers in other European nations get."

The Institute of Employment Rights has been debating how Brexit will change working rights for residents in the UK, including migrants. You can now read the full report of our London conference Migration After Brexit: the challenge for labour standards, and see the tweets from our free Brexit and employment rights below.

If you missed these important conferences, there are still opportunities to get involved in the debate. Our experts will return for another Migration after Brexit event in Liverpool on 27 April, and we will soon release an audio recording of our Brexit and employment rights debate.

Click here to book your place at our Migration After Brexit event in Liverpool on 27 April