Protection for Workers’ Rights
70 Alongside the provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement, the previous Government committed on 6 March 2019 to bringing forward legislation which would provide additional parliamentary scrutiny in considering future changes to UK and EU employment rights and health and safety standards for workers. These clauses are included in this Bill.
71 Workers’ rights will be protected after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 will ensure that workers’ rights that are currently derived from EU law will continue to have effect in domestic law, including the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the Agency Workers’ Regulations 2010 as well as protections covered in the Equality Acts.
72 Provisions in this Bill require the Government to make a statement of compatibility with the principle of ‘non-regression’ (that common EU - UK rights as they stand at the end of the implementation period will not be reduced) whenever introducing a bill related to workers’ rights. It also requires a Minister to make arrangements to give Parliament the opportunity to consider any future changes to EU law that change EU workers’ rights after the end of the implementation period and, where they diverge from current UK standards, whether Parliament agrees with the Government’s proposed course of action. Further detail is set out in the summary below (starting at paragraph 503).