Government publishes bill to repeal EU law rights

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill has been published by the government.

The Bill abolishes the supremacy of EU law over UK domestic law and, if it becomes law, the Bill will potentially be a hammer blow for workers’ rights.

The effect of this legislation would be that any retained EU law and any UK statutory instruments introduced to comply with EU law will cease to have effect on 31 December 2023 — unless the period is extended, or specific legislation is introduced to retain it.

The government has published a list of retained EU law, and any of the rights contained in regulations on this list are at risk of simply disappearing at the end of 2023. These include regulations governing:

• working time;

• business transfers (TUPE);

• agency workers;

• part-time and fixed-term workers; and

• maternity and parental leave.

If the Bill becomes law, workers may lose the right to paid holiday, the maximum 48-hour working week, protection of terms and conditions on a business transfer, protection against redundancy during maternity leave, and protections for agency, part-time and fixed-term workers.

The government may decide to legislate to retain some of these rights. But at this stage, it is impossible to know which rights the government will wish to retain, which might be watered down, and which they will seek to abolish completely.