Trades unions have warned that workers’ rights are in peril after the government unveiled new plans to scrap EU rules on working hours as part of its drive to cut “unnecessary red tape”.
The announcement comes as the proposed scrapping of up to 4,000 EU-era regulations by the end of the year was ditched after a private meeting with Brexiter MPs.
Ministers unveiled a package of regulatory reform on Wednesday in the retained EU law bill, which they said will help business cut costs.
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.
But 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”.
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. Ministers shouldn’t be meddling with this.”
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”.
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.”
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”.
Badenoch 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.
An 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.
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.
Badenoch 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.
There would be consultations on recording working hours and ways to streamline engagement with workers when a business transfers to new owners.
Other new plans include “promoting competition and productivity in the workplace” by limiting the length of so-called “non-compete clauses” to three months.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Badenoch 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.
“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 Labour peer Jenny Chapman, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, accused the government of making a “a humiliating U-turn”.
“After wasting months of parliamentary time, the Tories have conceded that this universally unpopular bill will damage the economy, at a time when businesses and families are already struggling with the Tory cost of living crisis,” she said.
“They are now trying to adopt some of Labour’s amendments to try to rescue this sinking ship of a bill.”
