The EU Retained Law Bill, which, according to unions and some politicians, is a threat to employee rights in the UK, is said to have been stalled by the government.
The bill is currently at report stage in the House of Lords. It was designed to scrap 4,000 EU laws, which were kept in the UK statute book after the UK’s departure from the European Union to ensure continuity. Any exceptions would have to be approved by ministers.
According to media reports, however, the government is to quietly ditch plans to move the bill forward, with no new dates announced, because a cross-party group of lords and MPs, including both Brexit supporters and remainers, oppose key parts of the legislation.
The pause could be used to allow time to alter the bill so as not to harm the Windsor Agreement on Northern Ireland or cause the EU to cease cooperation with the UK if “level playing field” measures were dropped.
The sunset clause under which the law change would be made could also be extended so that it would have to come in under a future Labour government, so it may never be enacted.
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Last weekend the Observer newspaper said it had been told by a senior Tory peer that “discussions are going on at the highest levels. Ministers are aware that if they do not make concessions, then they there is the prospect of the government being defeated.”
Fears that the bill would severely damage employee rights have long been aired by the unions. In response to reports of a delay in its progress, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “With this bill, the Tories have put a ticking time bomb under crucial workers’ rights and environmental protections. That’s why trade unions, environmental and business groups have all campaigned against it. And it’s why it is time to dump the bill altogether.”
Earlier, Nowak warned that the bill would lead to reduced employee rights in Northern Ireland compared with the Republic of Ireland. He said: “This reckless bill puts at risk vital workplace protections – like holiday pay, safe working hours and protection from discrimination. Not only is that bad for workers across Britain – it also threatens stability on the island of Ireland.
“If essential rights are torn up in Northern Ireland while stronger rights remain across the border, the British government will be in direct breach of its level playing field commitments.”
In a speech at the second reading of the bill, Conservative peer Lord Cormack described the legislation as a “constitutional monstrosity”.
A government spokesperson has denied that progress was being delayed, insisting it was still “fully committed” to the bill.
When the bill was passing through the Commons in January Hilary Benn MP argued that the amendments, which failed, sought “to give substance to what the government claims, which is that they [ministers] have no intention of sweeping away lots of environmental and consumer protection and workers’ rights laws; they just refuse to be specific about the ones they are going to keep.”
For the government, minister for industry and investment security Nusrat Ghani, said at the time that retained EU law was “constitutionally undesirable” and that fears over workers’ rights were the result of misinformation.
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