Brexit, Employment Law And Business Immigration

Over six months has now passed since the UK took the decision to leave the European Union (EU) so now is a good time to take stock of the impact this will have, or has had, in employment law and what the practical implications may be for human resources professionals. Much of UK employment law derives from, or is influenced by, EU law, and so the potential impact of Brexit on UK employment is significant. It is important to remember that despite the referendum the UK remains a Member State of the EU and is bound by EU law until such time as the UK leaves the EU.

The European Communities Act was passed in 1972 giving EU law supremacy over UK national law. As time has progressed, EU and UK law have become more and more intertwined and it will be difficult to separate them, although not impossible.

Each EU member state has a say in the legislative process and can, and have successfully blocked EU legislation. The EU hands down Directives and Regulations. Member states are given deadlines for implementation. While Regulations have direct effect automatically as law in each member state, Directives have indirect effect which require member states to pass legislation to give effect to the provisions of the directive.

With the Supreme Court's decision as to how Article 50 should be triggered by the government awaited, exactly when the UK leaves the EU is another one of the unknowns flowing from the referendum result. The UK Government says that it intends to trigger Article 50 in March 2017. So how will Brexit affect employment law? Many aspects of our law are based on or heavily influenced by EU law: principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination; agency workers' rights; TUPE and collective redundancy processes; and working time rules including those about holiday pay and rest breaks to name a few.

In October, the Prime Minister, Theresa May said that existing employment rights will continue to be guaranteed in law as long as she is Prime Minister. Moreover, any Government attempt to erode employee rights is likely to gain little public support. It would be reasonable to infer from this then that we will see little impact of Brexit on employment law in the meantime. That is however until one considers one of the fundamental principles of our relationship with the EU - the free movement of EU workers between the UK and EU member states.

Immigration was a key issue during the referendum debate and it seems unlikely that any agreement with the...