How does the EU affect UK employment law?
The EU has a significant impact on UK employment law and employee rights, sometimes prompting major changes in the UK. EU Directives include laws on: • collective redundancies • transfer of undertakings (TUPE) • data protection • discrimination (gender, racial and ethnic origin, disability, age, religion/belief and sexual orientation) • employee rights in the event of employer insolvency at work • equal pay • health and safety • information and consultation (both national level and European Works Councils as well as consultation in the event of collective redundancies, mergers and takeovers) • protection of ‘atypical’ workers (for example part-time, fixed-term and teleworkers) • protection of pregnant workers • protection of young workers • rights of workers transferred within the EU and to the EU from third countries (sometimes referred to as the ‘posted workers’ directive) • rights of temporary agency workers • working time (a proposed revision is under consideration).
