Category: Retained EU Law bill

EU Law Bill: Disability protections under threat

As the Retained EU Law Bill continues its journey to become law, UNISON is concerned about the devastating impact it could have on disability protections.

The Bill, described as a “bonfire of workers’ rights”, could see over 4,000 pieces of EU legislation torn out of the UK’s law books at the end of 2023 – including core workplace protections like holiday pay, maternity pay and protection for part-time workers. 

For decades, EU laws have ensured decent working standards in the UK, shielding workers from exploitation and discrimination. Alongside these laws, EU legal principles have developed over time, which UNISON has relied on to secure key landmark rulings for workers’ rights.

The Retained EU Law Bill could destroy all of these EU-derived laws, settled legal principles and case law, leaving UK workers in an employment law wasteland. 

How will the bill affect disabled workers?

UNISON is concerned this would have devastating implications for disabled workers, and workers who have caring responsibilities for a disabled person.

Whilst the UK Equality Act 2010 will remain in place, the EU legal principles that put flesh on the bones of this legislation will disappear.

UNISON has warned that this will result in:

  • Less protection for discrimination by association, ie where discrimination is because of someone else’s disability (or someone else’s protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010);
  • The meaning of “disability” in employment claims returning to an outdated, limited meaning used in non-employment Equality Act claims, where “normal day-to-day activities” is not expanded to include other activities relevant to participation in professional life.

UNISON national officer for disability equality Deirdre Costigan said: “This would be a shameful step backwards for disability equality at work. Already, many employers try to get away with disability discrimination by claiming the worker isn’t actually a disabled person. 

“If existing protections are removed, and the legal definition of what it means to have a disability is narrowed further, it will become even easier for employers to do this.”

“Lowering of protection against discrimination”

The government’s own equality impact assessment of the bill has highlighted the risk to people with protected characteristics, stating: “the EU law concepts that will be removed by the Bill underpin substantive rights in equality law.”

The equality impact assessment also describes how the removal of EU-derived laws and EU legal principles “may lead to a lowering of protection against discrimination” if specific rights related to the protected characteristics aren’t retained in any form. 

UNISON believes that this move away from European Court of Justice decisions will mean the Equality Act and its provisions are undermined. The union has outlined its concerns for disabled workers in its briefing to the government.

Since the Retained EU Law Bill was first introduced, UNISON has criticised the government for putting ideological principles before the lived, practical needs of workers. The one-year timeframe for the bill is rushed, opaque and unworkable.

Hundreds of UNISON members have shared their experiences and opinions on how important EU-derived workplace protections are.

UNISON is not alone. The government’s own regulatory policy committee has already declared the Retained EU Law Bill as ‘not fit for purpose’ and even the government lawyer who designed the concept of retained EU law has called the 2023 deadline unrealistic.

To help play your part in preventing this Brexit bonfire of workers’ protections, write to your MP today using this template. The more critical voices around the Retained EU Law Bill, the more likely we can delay and ultimately defeat it.

Write to your MP about here

The article EU Law Bill: Disability protections under threat first appeared on the UNISON National site.

UNISON demands Rishi Sunak guarantee workers’ protections in EU law bill

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea has written to prime minister Rishi Sunak to express the union’s concerns about the Retained EU Law Bill, and seek assurances on core workers’ protections.

The bill creates a countdown to the expiry of vital protections in the workplace by 31 December 2023, which will remove 3,800 pieces of EU-derived legislation in one fell swoop.

Ms McAnea accuses the government of placing “ideological principles above the lived, practical needs of the UK.”

The letter follows UNISON’s oral evidence to the parliamentary committee examining the bill, last week, which was presented by head of UNISON legal services Shantha David.

A key point of that evidence was the fact that, without a comprehensive list of what laws will be removed, it is unclear what will be retained or rewritten. Ms David told MPs: “Given the lack of information we have, it’s unclear what will survive and what will face the chop”.

Continuing in this vein, Ms McAnea writes: “The public is left to assume that all the following rights will disappear overnight: the right to an entitlement of 20 days’ annual leave, family friendly rights, protections from dismissal where employment is transferred/ outsourced, maternity, pregnancy, part-time and fixed term worker protections, as well as other core employment law protections including health and safety in the workplace for pregnant women.

“Workers and employers rely on these rights day in, day out. They are not luxuries, but the very foundation on which their working lives and their family time is built.”

The letter seeks guarantees on workers’ protections, specifically that the government:

  • removes workplace rights from of the scope of the bill altogether;
  • ensures reviews take place to identify all relevant legislation, for example the European Working Time Directive, and takes expert advice to ensure no dangerous mistakes are made;
  • amends the bill to change the 2023 sunset deadline to 2033, in order to give government departments due time for the review process to take place.

Ms McAnea concludes: “I believe the government should be focusing on the real problems our country faces and working to solve them, rather than taking away core rights at work.

“At a time when people are experiencing huge financial pressure and public services are struggling with lack of funding and staff, the government should be creating stability and certainty – not a bonfire of workers’ rights and decades of legal wrangling.”

Read the full letter to the Prime Minister

The article UNISON demands Rishi Sunak guarantee workers’ protections in EU law bill first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Retained EU Law Bill: UNISON gives expert evidence in Parliament

In its rush to finalise Brexit, the government plans to axe over 2,400 laws by the end of next year – all because they originated in the EU. Today UNISON, which represents over 1.3 million workers in the UK, gave expert evidence to Parliament on the devastating impact this will have on basic workers’ protections.

The controversial Retained EU Law Bill, introduced by Jacob Rees-Mogg, has set a fast-moving conveyor belt in motion, which will see all protections for workers and UK citizens that come from EU law fall off a cliff in December 2023, unless the government decides to produce new and equivalent UK laws. This deadline is referred to as the “sunset’ date for EU law.

Many core workplace protections – including holiday pay, maternity pay and equal pay for women and men – come from the European Union. For decades, EU laws have ensured decent working standards in the UK, shielding workers from exploitation and discrimination.

UNISON has warned that removing EU laws amounts to a bonfire of workers’ rights. 

Giving evidence to the Retained EU Law Bill committee in Parliament today, UNISON’s head of legal services Shantha David (pictured) gave examples of ten key EU laws that UNISON has identified are at risk.

The removal of these laws would impact on very basic workers’ rights such as annual leave, maternity and paternity protections to things such as TUPE protections during outsourcing.

Ms David said: “If these provisions are sunsetted, it will strip out some very basic employment rights.”

One of the rights that was discussed at length was statutory annual leave, and the fact that, without EU law, UK workers may be left with only eight bank holidays as their minimum annual leave entitlement.

Ms David explained: “The UK allows for, through the EU-derived provision, twenty days of statutory annual leave. That will no longer survive if this provision is sunsetted.”

Ms David also pointed out how working women stand to be most affected by the removal of EU laws, not just when it comes to maternity and pregnancy protections. If we lose the EU regulations that protect part-time and fixed-term workers, women will be most affected, given that they are more likely to be part-time and fixed-term.

In her evidence, Ms David also pointed out that the government still has not published a complete list of all affected legislation, despite the deadline being just over a year away: “We are talking about 2,400, even 3,800 pieces of legislation that are due to be sunsetted within a year, and I understand that they will simply go away next year unless something is done to replace them.”

Commenting on the government’s online dashboard, designed to identify laws that will be affected, Ms David said: “Unfortunately, the tableau doesn’t provide a full list of legislation that is due to go. Without knowing that, it is impossible to know what will stay and what will go.”

“We need to have a comprehensive list of the legislation that is due to be affected and once we have that, we can be consulted, so we can actually have our say on what we need to keep.”

Access to justice

UNISON also warned the committee that the Retained EU Law Bill will cause chaos in the legal system by removing the clarity and certainty that EU law provides to UK courts. This will make it harder for workers to challenge their employers.

Over the years, UNISON’s specialist in-house legal team has secured important and groundbreaking legal changes for workers in the UK Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice, including successfully bringing down the government’s unlawful employment tribunal fees regime.

Furthermore, earlier this year, UNISON intervened in a case where the UK Supreme Court relied on the EU Working Time Directive to rule on the correct interpretation of a term-time worker’s right to paid holiday.

The Retained EU Law Bill asks UK courts to depart from EU law and principles, which means that decades of legal judgements and case law will have to be reargued. This will prove costly for both workers and employers bringing and defending claims, and will cause delays.

Ms David explained: “The only way to clarify legislation as we go along, and to get certainty in the law, will be via litigation. And litigation is costly, and pursuing appeals in the senior courts will take a long time because of the delays, given that tribunals and lower courts will no longer be bound by Retained EU Law.”

She continued: “The difficulty we have here is the speed at which this is happening. It’s about being able to have a considered view on the employment provisions that exist for workers, and ensure we aren’t mired in litigation. The costs of litigation are profound.”

The UK’s court system is already under strain, with workers having to wait years for their case to be heard. UNISON is concerned that the Retained EU Law Bill will further increase costs and delays, meaning that only those with deep pockets can re-litigate settled principles. 

These financial barriers present a direct threat to the ability of the lowest-paid workers, who are most vulnerable to exploitation, to challenge discrimination or unfair treatment at work. It will also place a huge strain on the justice system.

The Retained EU Law Bill in its current form provides no clarity or confirmation from government on which EU laws will be maintained in the UK law books, and which workers’ protections will still stand in place.

Ms David said: “If it is the government’s intention not to get rid of workers’ rights and legislation that protects employees, then it would be a lot simpler to set out what is protected.”

Watch Ms David give evidence to the committee

To read more about the Retained EU Law Bill, visit unison.org.uk/EULawBill

The article Retained EU Law Bill: UNISON gives expert evidence in Parliament first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Workers’ protections at risk as EU Law bill moves through Parliament

Last week, the government’s Retained EU Law bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons.

The bill, introduced by former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, has set a fast-moving conveyor belt in motion, which will see essential protections for workers automatically vanish in December 2023, unless the government decides to produce new and equivalent UK laws.

UNISON is horrified by the measures included in the Retained EU Law bill. Many core workplace protections – including holiday pay, maternity/paternity leave, protections for part-time workers and equal pay for women and men – come from the European Union.

EU protections

For decades, EU laws have ensured decent working standards in the UK, shielding workers from exploitation and discrimination. Without this shield, workers in the UK will be exposed to an Americanised, hire-and-fire culture that makes work more insecure and dangerous – especially for women.

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea describes the bill as “an attack on all working women”.

Protections for working women have been developed over decades through a mixture of EU legislation, UK legislation and case law. Separating out those decisions will reverse years of progress for women, including:

?  equal pay: being able to challenge your employer if a member of the opposite sex gets paid more for doing the same job;

?  family friendly policies: being paid for maternity, paternity and parental leave along with any protections against unfair treatment, such as being sacked or being overlooked for promotion, when taking such leave;

?  pregnancy protections: protections against discrimination for pregnant women and women on maternity leave, and the right to suitable alternative work on no less favourable terms.

The bill now moves to committee stage, where a select group of MPs will examine it in detail and review evidence from expert organisations. UNISON will be submitting evidence in this process.

“Cruel and outmoded”

Since the bill was announced, UNISON has heard from hundreds of concerned members, who described what life was like at work before improvements to maternity, paternity and parental leave.

UNISON member Joe Walinets said: “I am old enough to remember the time when many women were routinely sacked for becoming pregnant, until the late 1970s.

“I remember female family members, colleagues and friends continuing to suffer harsh discrimination in the workplace, until 1993 [when the European Commission directive came into force].

“I was lucky enough to be among the first men to benefit from paternity leave, when my first child was born in 2004. Even then, I remember how my employer tried to get me back after 8 days instead of the statutory 10. The law was my greatest ally in telling them where to go with that, coupled with my union membership.”

Member, Pauline McSorley, said: “I had my child in 1996 before parental leave was established. I felt very much alone with the responsibility. My husband would have benefited from time to get used to parenthood.

“My council employer reduced my maternity leave from full pay to half after 12 weeks, therefore I had to return to work when my baby was 10 weeks. We should never return to these very basic standards. On reflection they were cruel and outmoded, even then.”

Another member said: “I was sacked from a part-time job in the early 1970s because I was pregnant. The excuse was that it could be slippery and I could fall!”

“Bonfire of workers’ rights”

Now that Jacob Rees-Mogg has resigned as business secretary, there has been speculation that new prime minister Rishi Sunak will extend the bill’s deadline from December 2023 to December 2026.

This comes in response to reports that critics, including legal experts and the government lawyer who designed the concept of retained EU law, say the timetable of reviewing 2,400 laws in little more than a year is unrealistic.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that the prime minister had been told it would take 400 staff in the business department alone to review 300 pieces of legislation that resulted from directives, decisions and EU rules over the past 50 years and that, given the cost of living crisis, this was impractical.

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “At a time when working people are experiencing huge financial pressures and uncertainties, we need certainty, stability and support – not a bonfire of workers’ rights.

“This government doesn’t have any mandate to strip away paid holidays, health and safety protections or to roll back rights that support working parents.”

UNISON’s head of legal services Shantha David, said: “UK citizens are entitled to expect basic employment rights in the 21st century. Yet the government’s plan to strip away essential protections around equal pay, maternity, paternity and holiday pay, and protections for outsourced workers, will leave working people open to exploitation, and without any access to justice.”

UNISON remains determined to fight back against the threats to workers’ protections in the Retained EU Law Bill.

The article Workers’ protections at risk as EU Law bill moves through Parliament first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Blog: The EU law bill – a Halloween nightmare from Downing Street

It might not be Halloween yet, but yesterday in the House of Commons, MPs debated the Retained EU Law bill, which aims to deregulate workplaces and strip away protections that all UK workers rely on.

A bonfire of employment rights might be the long-cherished dream of right-wing ideologues like Jacob Rees-Mogg, but it’s a nightmare for workers – particularly women. One member told UNISON that these plans were “callous, cruel and despicable”. I agree.

If the bill becomes law, it will start a countdown that will see rights such as rest breaks, holidays, maternity, paternity and parental leave, paid time off for health and safety reps, TUPE protections and more expire by December 2023.

The government will then give itself sweeping powers to rewrite, replace or simply let these rights disappear. There will be little opportunity for parliamentary debate or scrutiny over what these replacements are – if there is any time at all.

Civil servants have expressed concern that there is little capacity to deal with the uncertainty and massive gaps this bill will leave.

Not content with ripping out protections, with no guarantees or credible plans to replace them, the bill would also create chaos in the legal system. It asks UK courts to depart from EU law and principles, which means that decades of legal judgements and case law will have to be re-litigated and reargued, at an immense financial cost to all the workers and employers bringing and defending claims.

The UK’s court system is already under strain with long delays. If this bill becomes law, costs and delays will increase, meaning that only those with deep pockets can re-litigate settled principles. A sense of certainty in the law will be lost.

An attack on working women

This is a double whammy for women’s rights at work. Protections for working women have been developed over decades through a mixture of EU legislation, UK legislation and case law. Separating out those decisions will reverse years of progress for women.

For example, the ability to make equal pay claims for work of equal value done by different sexes, along with the clarity that the case law has brought to this area over many years, will dissolve entirely.

The removal of part-time and fixed-term contract protections, maternity and pregnancy protections, and the removal of family friendly policies that seek to ensure that childcare is not a ‘women’s issue’ alone, is an attack on all working women.

Since the bill was announced, UNISON has heard from hundreds of concerned members, who said what life was like at work before improvements to maternity, paternity and parental leave.

One member commented: “I was working in the 1970s when the men in the office were paid more than the women for doing the same job. Never again!”

Every response had the same message they want me to tell MPs: leave the rights of workers alone unless you are improving them.

The country has seen the chaos that the government have brought to our economy – now they want to tear up certainty in the workplace and in our courts. This cannot be allowed to happen. In the inspiring words of a UNISON member, if the government persists, they must be stopped.

“Remember fighting for the rights of women to vote and Emily Pankhurst? We will all be Emilys!”

If you are concerned about the Retained EU Law Bill, you can have your say here.

The article Blog: The EU law bill – a Halloween nightmare from Downing Street first appeared on the UNISON National site.