OVER the past five months the national debate on the consequences of the result of the referendum on our EU membership has generally focused on issues of principle. Will Parliament get a say on the UK Government’s negotiating objectives? To what extent will the Scottish Government, and Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies get to mould the agenda to meet the needs of each constituent part of the UK? What impact will this debate have on the prospects for Scottish Independence?
But as we continue to seek clarity from the Tories in Whitehall about their direction of travel in the overall negotiations to come, serious questions are emerging about the finer detail of the UK Government’s post-Brexit plans.
This was increasingly apparent in a debate in Parliament on Monday evening on the impact of Brexit on the rights of workers in the UK.
We’ve already heard warm words from the new Prime Minister on her plans for this area. At the Tory conference last month she seemingly couldn’t be clearer, declaring that “existing workers’ legal rights will continue to be guaranteed in law” for as long as she was in power.
But it’s already clear that this statement has begun to unravel.
Last week I was alarmed to see a government minister begin to row back on this commitment in a written parliamentary answer. In reply to a question on the future rights of agency workers, the Minster of State for Exiting the EU worryingly stated that rather than guaranteeing to protect all current workers’ rights, he would only do so wherever this was “practical”.
This seems entirely at odds with the seemingly cast-iron assurance given by the Prime Minister only weeks ago.
With this in mind I pressed ministers during the debate on this, asking them to outline what practical issues they’ve identified to date in delivering on this promise, and to detail the current rights which are now at threat.
No answers were forthcoming.
This matters. It matters across a range of areas, to workers in every community and in every sector of our society. It matters because many of the key advances we’ve seen in workers' rights in the last few decades, and in particular the rights of women in the workplace, have been established as a result of our membership of the EU.
These rights include the right to equal pay for work of equal value, workplace protection of pregnant women and new mothers, as well as the right to receive paid time off to attend ante-natal appointments.
These legal protections have not ended workplace inequality overnight, but they are a foundation stone onto which progress towards a more equal society has been built.
But it’s not simply these explicitly women’s rights which are now at threat.
Given the recent record of this Tory Government, which has seen women bear the brunt of their regressive social and employment policies, I believe that EU legislation which has previously guaranteed wider workers' rights is even more important today in protecting women in the workplace.
We know already that previous UK Governments, for example, argued against limiting the time of the working week. Now we’re on the path to losing the protection of EU laws, I fear that this right-wing Tory Government will have an unfettered opportunity to roll back the clock in the same manner that it’s recently done for trade unions’ rights.
Weakening of the right to paid holidays, or undermining equality for part-time, fixed term or agency workers would detrimentally and disproportionately impact women.
I, and many others, voted to remain in the EU in part to protect these rights, but I also know that many who voted to leave did not do so in order to give workers a poorer deal.
That’s why Theresa May must keep her word.
But more than this, she and her ministers must lift the veil of secrecy and be clear and transparent on their future plans.
For example, if their plans to repatriate EU law into UK statute are successful, will the Government confirm that they will not impose a cap on the compensation available for discrimination claims?
Will minsters look to remove the protections currently offered by the Working Time Directive, which means that workers cannot work in excess of 48 hours per week, unless they opt out?
Or will the Government seek to remove or amend regulations which give agency workers the same rights to basic employment and working conditions as other workers?
As we march towards the PM’s own deadline of beginning negotiations to leave the EU, we also need to know more about her plans for a post-Brexit Britain.
This Government needs to be clear and transparent about its vision for the future. It must act now and give reassurance to workers and guarantee the protection of women’s rights in the workplace which have served us all so well for so long.
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