Business secretary "has no plans" for employment rights review
A scheduled review of workers’ rights post-Brexit will no longer take place, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has said. There were concerns that, following the review, employees would lose rights and protections such as the 48-hour week, holiday entitlements and overtime pay. But, speaking to ITV last week, Kwarteng advised, "the review is no longer happening". He later told Commons: "There is no plan to reduce workers' rights."
Opposition MPs and union leaders had said the proposed review confirmed their belief that once the UK has left the EU, the government would start to erode employment safeguards enshrined in EU law.
But Mr Kwarteng told MPs:
"I do not want there to be any doubt about my or the government's intentions in this area. We will not row back on the 48-hour weekly working limit derived from the Working Time Directive, we will not reduce the UK annual leave entitlement, which is already much more generous than the EU minimum standard, we will not row back on legal rights to breaks at work. I will say it again, there is no government plan to reduce workers' rights."
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