Worker Rights Changes (UK)

We don’t advise on Employment Law, however the UK Government has made the following announcements that are tangential to the EHS law documents we supply to clients., and of interest.

(1) Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 – this document will amend the Employment Rights Act 1996 to give workers and agency workers the right to request more predictable terms and conditions of work. The document is here.

Note the EU has a 2019 Directive conferring similar rights. Member states were required to implement this Directive by 1 August 2022. More details are here.

Royal Assent for the UK Act was given on 19th September 2023, but the provisions are not expected to be commenced for another year.

(2) Changes to the Working Time Regulations and TUPE – the Government had earlier in 2023 consulted on three areas for change –

• Record keeping requirements under the Working Time Regulations
• Simplifying annual leave and holiday pay calculations in the Working Time Regulations
• Consultation requirements under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment), or ‘TUPE’, Regulations

The Government also launched a consultation in January 2023 on calculating annual leave entitlement for part-year and irregular hours workers.

Announcement today 8th November confirms these proposals will be taken forward. We supply the Working Time Regulations in client systems, and will supply the updated text once the relevant Statutory Instruments are issued.

(3) Sky (news) reported yesterday “The government has announced plans to reinstate EU equality laws before they expire at the end of the year”

According to Sky – the protections being retained include the ‘single source test’ test, which gives women the right to equal pay with men for doing work of equal value, and preventing women from experiencing less favourable treatment at work because they are breastfeeding.

Other laws being retained include:

• Protecting women from unfavourable treatment after they return from maternity leave, where that treatment is in connection with a pregnancy or a pregnancy-related illness occurring before their return;

• Ensuring that women can continue to receive special treatment from their employer in connection with maternity, for example through enhanced occupational maternity schemes;

• Confirming that the definition of disability in the context of employment will explicitly cover working life;

• Holding employers accountable if they create or allow discriminatory recruitment conditions, such as if they make public discriminatory statements about access to employment in their organisation;

• Providing explicit protections from indirect discrimination by association, so that those who may be caught up and disadvantaged by discrimination against others are also protected.

These are currently EU Treaty equality rights. Unless retained by Statutory Instrument (SI), all EU Treaty rights are extinguished at the end of this year (the REUL Act).

Once the SI has been published, we will note it on the Removal of EU-Era Law tracker list on client systems.

Product Safety Reviews (UK)

The UK government announced today (2nd August 2023) a review of the UK’s product safety regime. The document is here. Closing date for responses is 24th October 2023. You will see that what is being considered is a cross-cutting risk based categorisation for UKCA marked product, amongst other proposals.

Some CE marked goods will continue to circulate indefinitely in the GB market as announced yesterday (two blog posts on the matter). Note the indefinite CE mark recognition announcement is limited to the goods covered by 18 regulations under the remit of the UK’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Here is the CE marking Brexit guidance again.

CE marked goods will circulate indefinitely in Northern Ireland by reason of the agreement reached between the UK and the EU. Note CE marked goods circulating in Northern Ireland attested by a body in the UK must be marked UK(NI) as well as the CE mark.

A separate consultation (closing date 24th October 2023) is announced for domestic upholstered furniture (fire safety) here. Note: existing legislation applies throughout the UK, accordingly changes to the regime will also apply in Northern Ireland. New Regulations are proposed, and are set out in the consultation document. You will see the proposal is for these new rules to apply from 1st October 2024, with a transitional period to 1 April 2026.

Obligations in the new rules will be assigned to the various economic actors in the supply chain. Please read the obligations carefully. Note the flame retardant technology hierarchy.

In the EU, upholstered furniture fire safety is regulated by the General Product Safety Directive, this Directive applies in Northern Ireland. But upholstered furniture falls within the EU’s group of “non-harmonised goods”. In addition, the UK has Internal Market legislation. The UK government asserts that the new rules would not only apply in Northern Ireland but also to EU imports to Northern Ireland (including from Ireland).

CE Marking in UK (UK)

UPDATE: the text changes to existing UK Brexit guidance confirms Construction Products, Medical Devices and Transportable Pressure Equipment, and some other product, has different rules.

Today 1st August 2023, the UK government has announced that European CE marking will continue to be recognised in all parts of the UK indefinitely.

The announcement is here,

The end December 2024 deadline is withdrawn.