The pound plummeting is not the only change after Brexit. Was bedeutet der Brexit für mein Geld? by Bankenverband is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The UK Conservative Party Conference has provided Theresa May, and her Government, with an opportunity to publicise their plans for the timing of Brexit. In her speech to the Conference recently, the Prime Minster announced:
- Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty will be invoked by the end of March 2017, triggering the start of the UK's formal withdrawal from the European Union. At that point, the two year period of negotiations between the EU and the UK, to design the exit agreement, will commence. The UK will leave the Union by March 2019 (absent an agreed extension).
- In the next Queen's Speech, which will be in either April or May 2017, a Great Repeal Bill will be introduced, to come into force on the date on which the UK actually leaves the EU.
The bill, please
Despite its rather grand name, the bill is simply a device to enable the Government to manage the process of separating UK law from EU law, where it decides that this is necessary. The bill will repeal the European Community Act 1972, the UK law that currently gives supremacy to EU law, and at the same time, will convert all existing EU law into UK law.
This means that, as at the date of Brexit, there will be no immediate end to the applicability in the UK of EU derived laws, including employment laws. Instead, they will remain intact and in place, with the Government/Parliament then able to decide whether to retain or repeal or amend them at their leisure, post Brexit.
Employment law
In terms of what these announcements mean for UK employment law, it remains the case that there is no immediate change. The plan is for EU derived employment laws to remain in place at Brexit and continue until repealed or changed. In fact, it appears that there may be no Brexit-related change for quite some time, if at all, given that Theresa May also used her Conference speech to announce that, "existing workers' legal rights will continue to be guaranteed in law, and they will be guaranteed as long as I am Prime Minister".
It seems, therefore, that businesses hoping that Brexit might provide an opportunity for rules on, for example, agency workers, holiday pay or discrimination compensation to be revisited could be disappointed in the short term. This does not mean, however, that Theresa May's Premiership will be a quiet time for employers.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
