Unions and MPs must unite to stop the retained EU law bill and save our rights

After months of chaos many, including in the financial markets, seem to have welcomed the relative stability of the Rishi Sunak government. The new administration is keen to present itself as calm, serious and ready to bring the country together, in stark contrast to the short-lived Tufton Street-inspired Liz Truss government. Sunak put together a fragile coalition to win the leadership, however, and if he wants to move on from the previous government he must demonstrate who is calling the shots in his administration.

The big test of the government’s new direction is whether it sticks with the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill. This is not just some post-Brexit housekeeping; it represents the main act for many on the British political right, particularly the adherents to Britannia Unchained. Brexit won’t be done until the European Research Group has had its way by removing many hard-won workplace, consumer and environmental rights. The bill puts them all at risk.

The premise of the bill is deceptively simple. Firstly, it sets a default that most of the UK’s EU-derived law will automatically expire at the end of 2023. Secondly the bill gifts UK ministers (and in some areas devolved authorities) powers to revoke, restate, replace, update or delay the default expiry EU retained law by statutory instrument – a process which involves next-to-no parliamentary scrutiny or debate.

Reviewing and reaching a considered decision on so many complex items of legislation in time for the 2023 deadline is surely impossible. It comes against a background of pre-existing civil service workforce shortages and workload issues, likely compounded by the threatened spending cuts. Environmental groups have pointed out that officials in the Environment and Rural Affairs Department will have just one day to spend on each piece of legislation, including weekends and bank holidays.

This brings us back to the Prime Minister’s fragile coalition. Few expect the next two years to be easy. A raging cost-of-living crisis, turbocharged by the rash decisions of his predecessor, will surely lead to further turbulence inside a divided Conservative Party. Although there have been some suggestions this bill might be dropped, even the most moderate of ministers will be tempted to throw red meat to appease the extremists – especially given many will fancy a tilt at leader should Sunak falter. With tax rises in the offing, a deeply ‘unconservative’ policy, using this bill to slash rights will become an especially attractive bargaining option, partly because it can be done without a vote.

One hope for those seeking to maintain and improve workers’ rights may be that an incoming progressive administration could use these powers to significantly upgrade rights and protections. But the current government has sought to close this avenue off by including a clause where revisions or replacements of EU law must not “increase the regulatory burden”. This is defined as including: “A financial cost; an administrative inconvenience; an obstacle to trade or innovation; an obstacle to efficiency, productivity or profitability.”

The government’s analysis of EU retained law identifies hundreds of pieces of legislation, with the highest numbers in areas including fisheries, vehicle standards, environmental taxes and health and safety. As trade unionists we often decry the weakness of the UK’s employment protections. And we are right to do so, the UK consistently lags behind other comparable economies on issues like sick pay, public holidays and protections for freelance workers. However, many of us also remember what life was like prior to the UK joining the European Communities in the early 1970s.

We must not take for granted the rights we have and we must awake others to the ideology that underpins this de-regulatory zealotry. Prospect members in safety critical industries such as energy are deeply concerned about the potential loss of EU-inspired health and safety legislation that underpins their confidence they will safely return home from work every day.

According to the House of Commons Library, “most of the UK’s labour law protections are contained in regulations originally made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act”. This includes but is not limited to the: working Time Regulations; TUPE rules; Agency Workers Regulations; Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations; Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations; Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations; and Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations.

In addition, there is important case law on equal pay that provides stronger protection, in some contexts, than the UK Equality Act 2010. It is not an exaggeration to say that all of this could be potentially at risk.

There was no mention of giving these sweeping powers to ministers in the 2019 Conservative manifesto. This is a bill without a mandate, something the new and unelected Prime Minister should be aware of – neither have been tested at the ballot box. All the last manifesto said was that: “As we end the supremacy of European law, we will be free to craft legislation and regulations that maintain high standards but which work best for the UK.”

One of the main arguments of the Leave campaign was the need to restore parliamentary sovereignty. That sovereignty is dangerously undermined by this bill, which transfers huge powers from parliament to the executive.

So, what can we do about this bill? We must make much more noise about it and expose the danger from it. It is not just a boring technicality. We can’t rely on politicians in parliament to do what is necessary on their own. We must use our collective voice to make certain they do so. We can appeal to those on the right concerned about parliamentary sovereignty and scrutiny, as well as to the opposition.

This is not about overturning the result of the referendum. In fact, all politicians should realise there are votes in opposing this bill. Because if they want to deliver on the referendum, on better jobs in more parts of the country, and on parliamentary sovereignty, then this bill is precisely the wrong way of going about it. Stopping this bill can be part of articulating a vision of a better, fairer Britain – where our rights are protected and many more of us have a say. Over to you, Mr Sunak.