What Does the Government's Brexit White Paper Mean for Employers?

The White Paper is split into four chapters: economic partnership, security, cooperation and institutional arrangements. Although the proposals still need to be finalised with the EU, the White Paper offers some comfort to employers that the Government wishes many things to carry on as they are at present.

Employment

The White Paper indicates that current employment rights will not be diminished by Brexit. There is a commitment to a "non-regression requirement for domestic labour standards".

That means that that no EU-based employment laws will be repealed and existing workers' rights enjoyed under EU law will continue to be available in UK law after withdrawal and the end of the proposed transition period. It had been assumed that the Government might have sought to relax TUPE, the Working Time Regulations, collective consultation requirements and discrimination legislation, but this is looking increasingly unlikely.

Immigration

As reported previously, the UK and EU have already agreed that free movement of people will continue throughout the implementation agreement, which is due to run until the end of December 2020. EU citizens resident in the UK before the end of that period will need to apply for 'settled status' or 'pre-settled status' in order to continue to be able to live and work in the UK on the same basis as now after the implementation period ends.

The Government has not yet finalised its policy in what will replace free movement of people. That will be set out in a separate White Paper and another Immigration Bill. However, the future relationship White Paper does make some reference to the Government's ambitions for future mobility arrangements giving us some clues as to their priorities. On this, the White Paper says that the Government will seek reciprocal arrangements with the EU which, although will be "consistent with the ending of free movement", will also:

• "support businesses to provide services and to move their talented people"
• "allow citizens to travel freely, without a visa for tourism and temporary business activity" (including a proposal that the UK should continue to be able to participate in the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) arrangements)
• "facilitate mobility for students and young people, enabling them to continue to benefit from world leading universities and the cultural experiences the UK and the EU have to offer" (the White Paper references an ambition to continue to participate in cultural exchanges such as Erasmus+, and also proposes a UK-EU youth mobility scheme similar to the existing scheme operated with countries like Australia)

Next Steps

As well as being approved by parliament, agreement needs to be reached with the EU before anything set out in the White Paper can be implemented. The same also applies to the agreements reached so far on citizens' rights, given the mantra that "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed".

Employers will certainly be reassured that there are unlikely to be any dramatic changes in EU-based employment legislation in the coming years. Those employers relying on EU nationals in their workforces though will still have concerns that there is very little detail of what immigration arrangements will be in place from January 2021.

We will continue to keep you updated with further developments.

For further information, please contact Tom Brett Young in the Immigration Law team on 0121 227 3759.