BEERG Newsletter - EWCs: Do they still exist in the UK post-Brexit?

David Hopper of Lewis Silkin LLP writes: On Friday 23 June, the Court of Appeal in London heard an appeal by easyJet against decisions of the Central Arbitration Committee and Employment Appeal Tribunal. 

Those tribunals decided in 2021 and 2022 that, despite the UK withdrawing itself from the EU’s legal framework at the end of 2020, easyJet must continue to operate two European Works Councils despite Brexit: one European Works Council under the laws of a member state of the EU in line with the EWC Directive (i.e., under German law, in easyJet’s case) and a second European Works Council under UK law. 

In particular, easyJet argued that the Central Arbitration Committee was wrong to decide that it was ‘irrelevant’ that Parliament had passed a law repealing the requirement for central managements situated in the UK to operate a European Works Council, and that the Employment Appeal Tribunal was wrong to decide that, whilst such legislation wasn’t ‘irrelevant’, it didn’t matter that that the wording of that requirement had been repealed as it had never served any purpose. The Court of Appeal’s decision is expected over the summer.

MEANWHILE, we understand that one of the appeals against the Irish Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) decisions in the Verizon case will be heard by the Labour Court in late August, while an appeal against the collective redundancy decision in Debenhams will be heard in September.