What does the UK-EU deal mean for workers' rights?

The government has recently set out plans to reform ‘retained EU law’. However, it is not clear what this means for the future of retained EU law relating to labour standards and how this might interact with the level playing field provisions agreed within the TCA.

Civil society organisations have warned about the risks of the UK diverging from the EU’s economic and social model. Trade unions in particular have expressed concern that the UK could ‘fall behind’ the EU on labour standards and that the newly announced reviews of retained EU law pose a risk to current protections.

This short briefing sets out the implications of the level playing field provisions in the TCA for any future UK reforms relating to workers’ rights. It aims to provide an insight into how the level playing field might work in practice and to what extent it upholds labour and social protections for workers in the UK.