Labour Law in the United Kingdom

A vital and large segment of Employment law and social policy in the United Kingdom as it is today is, in many ways, a product of the influence of European Union social policy and the directives providing legislative protections for workers and employees. In particular, directives such as the Acquired Rights Directive and Collective Redundancies Directive have introduced concepts and led to implementation efforts that have given rise to controversy at an EU level. This can partly be laid at the feet of the UK as a common law country, whereas European law tends to reflect civil law tendencies. Moreover, the controversies can also be attributed to the UK’s far more neo-liberal economic outlook to the operation and regulation of the labour market that is in contrast to many EU Member States. While the UK does boast of some of the most generous employee rights, such as maternity leave and pay, those entitlements deriving from the EU that tend to interfere with the freedom of businesses to operate as they see fit in relation to their employees, have tended to meet more resistance. Although employment law has not changed significantly in the last twenty years, apart from a key procedural change increasing continuous service requirements (to be able to rely on a number of employment rights) and the introduction of fees in employment tribunals, the COVID 19 crisis has seen a number of temporary changes that have sought to protect employment security and the economy as a whole, such as the furlough scheme and a variety of grant and loan opportunities. Like most of the EU during the 2020 crisis, the UK adopted its own means of dealing with the immediate needs of the crisis, which reflects the isolationist tendencies it has exhibited since the country voted to leave the European Union. This latter event is going to be a key driver in future changes to employment law. Although there are already mechanisms in place to maintain the current droits acquis of the EU, since the UK left the EU, there has been nothing to prevent the government from retrenching many of the more controversial employee rights, such as those derived from the Acquired Rights Directive and the Collective Redundancies Directive, which have caused confusion and consternation when it comes to their perceived adverse impact on businesses. Discussions in the Westminster Parliament have alluded to this on numerous occasions so, in short, it is only a matter of time. This chapter will explore the development of employment law over the last 20 years, examining the derivation of the laws that are commonly a part of an employment law framework and how they have evolving in line with the changing paradigm of the UK government. In particular, this chapter will focus on EU-derived law and the likely impact on this of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.