Photographer: Hollie Adams / Bloomberg
Photographer: Hollie Adams / Bloomberg
The UK government is exploring reforms to workers’ rights that break with EU rules, which could open up Britain Until retaliatory measures from the block.
Officials have drawn up proposals that would remove the 48-hour working week limit, according to a person familiar with the matter, who said the plans are preliminary and ministers have yet to make decisions. The Financial Times first reported the measures.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said on Twitter that the government “will not lower workers’ rights standards.”
If the plans are pursued, they could cause friction with the EU a few weeks after the UK sealed a trade agreement with the blog. Negotiations dragged on until just before Christmas, with the so-called fair play of fair competition rules being one of the last areas of conflict.
He the agreement allows the UK and the EU to establish their own labor, environmental, climate and social policies, but also allows retaliation if any change results in “material impacts on trade or investment between the parties”.
Changes to the regulations around breaks during the working day and the proposal not to include overtime when calculating some payment allowances are also being considered, depending on the person. The government aims to make changes that can support business and growth, without undermining worker protections, they said.
“Improved” rights
“We have absolutely no intention of lowering workers’ rights standards, ”the government said in a statement. “Leaving the EU allows us to remain a rule-maker and protect and improve the rights of UK workers.”
Any proposal that arises will be subject to full consultation to ensure that no policy pursued has unintended consequences that diminish workers ’rights, the person said.
Opposition Labor Party spokesman Ed Miliband accused ministers of “preparing to break their promises to the British people and taking a hammer for workers’ rights” and said his party “will fight nails “to defend existing protections.
Erasing rights
“These proposals are not about reducing bureaucracy in companies, but about breaking vital rights for workers,” he said in a statement. “The government wants Britain to compete on the back of the loss of normal workers’ rights.”
As the UK left the EU sharing the same labor and environmental standards, Brexit supporters hailed the ability to free the country from Brussels bureaucracy as one of its grand prizes during the 2016 referendum campaign. .
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was one of the protagonists of this campaign, held a conference last week call with business leaders during which he asked them to help him decide what regulations should be broken now that the divorce with the block has been completed.