Does the Prime Minister's recent statement commit the UK to protecting workers rights?
Leaving the EU inevitably raise concerns about a regression in employment rights after exit day, if this ever happens!
In an effort to dampen those fears and garner support for her withdrawal agreement, the Prime Minister made a statement to the House of Commons on 12th February 2019 which led to speculation that a bill might be introduced to commit the UK to follow suit whenever the EU changes its standards in the area of worker rights.
The Prime Minister's statement included the following:
'I believe we have a shared determination across this House not to allow the UK leaving the EU to mean any lowering of standards in relation to workers’ rights, environmental protections or health and safety.... We have already made legally-binding commitments to no regression in these areas if we were to enter the backstop and we are prepared to consider legislating to give these commitments force in UK law. And in the interests of building support across the House, we are also prepared to commit to asking Parliament whether it wishes to follow suit whenever the EU changes its standards in these areas. And of course we don’t need to automatically follow EU standards in order to lead the way - as we have done in the past under both Conservative and Labour Governments'.
Posted on 04/28/2019 by Ortolan
