The Labour peer Jenny Chapman, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, accused the government of making a “a humiliating U-turn”. “We will consult on cutting unnecessary red tape on recording working hours, streamline engagement with workers when a business transfers to new owners, and provide up to 5 million UK workers greater freedom to switch jobs by limiting non-compete clauses.” The bill was widely condemned by legal experts not just because of the sunset clause but because of the sweeping powers it gave ministers to reform or remove laws without the usual parliamentary scrutiny.īadenoch said on Wednesday: “As part of this drive for deregulation, today I can announce that we will make improvements to employment law which could help save businesses around £1bn a year, while safeguarding the rights of workers. However, there are fears about the perceived threat to everything from passenger rights and compensation for cancelled flights, to equality employment law and environmental standards. Instead of the 3,700 laws the government had lined up for a “bonfire” of EU law, it emerged this year that it was aiming to remove 800 statutes and regulations. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. The government said it would provide more flexibility for up to five million UK workers to join a competitor or start up a rival business after they have left a position. Other new plans include “promoting competition and productivity in the workplace” by limiting the length of so-called “non-compete clauses” to three months. There would be consultations on recording working hours and ways to streamline engagement with workers when a business transfers to new owners. The move, described by Labour as a “humiliating U-turn”, marks the abandoning of the end-of-year deadline which experts had warned was totally unrealistic.īadenoch said the government would instead be making “improvements to employment law” which could help save businesses around £1bn a year, while safeguarding the rights of workers. Rees-Mogg later said in a statement it amounted to “an admission of administrative failure.” He decried “an inability of Whitehall to do the necessary work and an incapability of ministers to push this through their own departments”.īadenoch had earlier outlined the changes to a supposed “bonfire” of EU legislation, which had originally meant thousands of laws would automatically face the axe on 31 December under a controversial “sunset clause” deadline.Īn amendment now clarifies which regulations will be removed from the UK statute book, instead of highlighting only the retained EU laws that would be saved, she said. Her decision not to ditch thousands of EU-era regulations by the end of the year was met with opprobrium by Conservatives, with former Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg tweeting: “Regrettably the prime minister has shredded his own promise rather than EU laws.”
Trade secretary Kemi Badenoch said the government will retain the 48-hour requirement from the EU’s working time directive, and otherwise uphold the UK’s “world-leading employment standards”. Ministers shouldn’t be meddling with this.” On changes to holiday pay, which will see it calculated in a different manner from current EU law, he added: “The current law ensures that most holiday is paid in line with workers’ normal earnings, including regular overtime. The package included reducing “time-consuming and disproportionate reporting requirements” for specific elements of the working time regulations, the part of UK law which implements key EU labour regulations and rights.īut Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Council (TUC), seized on the government’s stated aims, calling them “a gift to rogue employers looking to exploit workers and put them through long, gruelling shifts without enough rest”. Ministers unveiled a package of regulatory reform on Wednesday in the retained EU law bill, which they said will help business cut costs.
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