The potential impact of Brexit on UK labour law standards, many of which originated in European law, could lead to the watering down of safeguarding provisions for British workers, as well as the risk of competition in other countries for lowest labour law standards.

Participants of the event, organised by AK EUROPA and ÖGB Europabüro (the Brussels Offices of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour and the Austrian Trade Union Federation in Brussels), included Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC), Erich Foglar, President of the Austrian Trade Union Federation and Barbara Spinelli, Member of the European Parliament. The discussion was moderated by Esther Lynch, Confederal Secretary of the European Trade Union Federation.

Professor Michael Ford spoke about the legal status of workers’ rights after Brexit:

“After Brexit, the many workers' rights derived from EU law will have no privileged legal status whatsoever, and so can quickly be repealed, amended or adjusted by the government of the day.

The laws will be interpreted by the domestic courts, which lack any tradition of fundamental social rights; and the rights will no longer benefit from important EU principles such as effective remedies.

The floor of rights which has been carefully constructed over the last forty years could be stripped bare at any time."

In 2016, prior to the EU referendum, the TUC commissioned Michael to create a legal opinion on the impact of Brexit on workers’ rights. The report can be read in full here.