BEERG Newsletter – UK: Employment law after Brexit

In this article Vince Toman, Colin Leckey and Russell Brimelow from Lewis Silkin LLP discuss how the Brexit transition period up to the end of this year works and what changes need to happen, and may happen, thereafter. Of course, the impetus for reaching a Brexit deal is now enhanced with Joe Biden’s victory in the US election – his administration is particularly concerned about maintaining the Good Friday Agreement. This may yet hold some final surprises.

In relation to employment law in the UK, of particular interest is how EWCs will need to change in terms of their UK members and when they can no longer be governed by UK law. Also, there is keen interest in seeing any beginnings of a divergence in case law, as the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court are to be given powers from next year to depart from ECJ decisions. 

And what about new legislation? The UK will not need to implement 3 new Directives on Whistleblowing, Work-Life Balance and Working Conditions. And it may (more likely through legislation) start to water down some existing EU laws on holiday pay, no caps on discrimination claims and removing the Agency Workers Regulations in their entirety. Possible other areas for change include the loosening of prohibitions on positive discrimination and the harmonising of terms after a TUPE transfer. But with Covid the priority, that won’t happen soon….  

We will shortly be relaunching the Lewis Silkin/BEERG “Brexit Exchange” to track all these changes as well as providing a forum for discussion on practical ways of coping with the challenges that Brexit will inevitably bring. As soon as the final terms of any future relationship deal are settled, or in the event of a no-deal end to the UK’s Brexit transition period, we will schedule a Lewis Silkin/BEERG webinar for a full discussion around all these matters.

BEERG COMMENT :

If there is no deal between the EU and the UK then food and manufactured goods being traded between the EU and the UK could be subject to tariffs which could impact sales as such tariffs will impact the final price to the consumer. 

We are aware that some UK-based companies are considering factoring the potential adverse impact of tariffs on sales into next year’s pay negotiations. We would be interested in hearing from any of you who have also done such calculations. 

From BEERG Newsletter Issue #37 – Nov 12, 2020