Hrexit?
Donald MacKinnon on what Brexit might mean for HRThe starting gun has been fired for the EU referendum and the big beasts of the political world are lining up to persuade us to either stay or leave.
Should the vote be to leave the EU, what will the effect be on employment law and health and safety in the UK? Will we be ushering in a golden age of small Government and minimal regulation, or will it be business as usual?
It’s worth noting at the outset the sheer extent of European influence on UK employment law, much of which is interpreted from directives emanating from the EU.
UK equality law, brought in by The Equality Act, comes from the European Equal Treatment Directive. Limits on working time and right-to-be-paid annual leave come from the Working Time Directive. The protections offered to employees on the transfer of a business are based solely on European law.
European Court decisions are binding for UK courts and influence how UK law implements and interprets the legislation flowing from directives. A recent example of this was the furore over the correct interpretation of holiday pay calculation, which threw UK employers into a panic that lasted a good couple of years.
In theory, ‘Brexit’ will free the UK Government to roll back a raft of employment rights and health and safety regulations. Yet there’s every reason to believe that the impact of an exit from the EU may have a lesser impact that some fear and others hope.
Slash and burn
Any vote to exit would be followed by negotiations, generally expected to last two years, with any radical changes unlikely to be implemented until these concluded.
It seems generally accepted that, even in the event of a vote to leave, the UK would wish to retain some form of relationship with the EU, perhaps along the lines of that enjoyed by Norway or Switzerland. Such a relationship would involve the UK having to accept some EU legislation, including employment legislation.
Even if the UK were to sever all ties with Europe, there are practical difficulties with a ‘slash and burn’ approach to employment and health and safety regulations.
People may complain about interference from Brussels, but how many in practice would be happy to lose their right to paid annual leave or accept a situation where employers could freely chose to discriminate against job applicants based on race, gender, age or sexual orientation?
Again, people may bemoan the ‘where there’s blame, there’s a claim’ health and safety culture, but few would like to attend a workplace where safety rules were not implemented and enforced.
Far more likely than a wholesale change to the employment landscape would be a tinkering around the edges of current employment and health and safety regulation.
Passion vs reality
One or two of the more unpopular, or less obviously necessary, regulations may disappear. For instance, the Agency Workers Regulation would be in the firing line.
This regulation gives workers certain rights including the right to paid leave, which would in all probability remain in place, but some of the other restrictions on working hours would go.
It is difficult to see a Government of any hue make any significant changes to discrimination legislation or ‘family friendly’ rights.
The right to claim unfair dismissal is one of the few pieces of employment legislation that derives wholly from UK domestic law and is unlikely to be affected.
And perhaps that is the lesson of the current debate over Europe. It has excited much passion on all sides, but maybe the truth is that, certainly in employment and health and safety terms, no matter the outcome, not a lot may end up changing.
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