Brexit Bites: what does the future hold for the workplace?

It feels as if there hasn’t been a day since 23 June when the newspapers haven’t talked about what happens now we’ve voted for Brexit. David Davis made some encouraging noises about UK employment law and reassured the country that there is no intention to pare back existing employment rights. But employment law does not seem to be top of anyone’s list of priorities at the moment. UNISON’s appeal to the Supreme Court on the hotly contested Tribunal fees, which was due to be heard around Christmas time, has now been bumped into March 2017 to make way for a likely appeal in the challenge to the Article 50 process. In other news, only six out of the 170 questions put to the Brexit secretary by Labour shadow cabinet ministers related to employment rights, although there were a further 15 relating to free movement rights. Some might say this is sufficient but it’s hardly centre-stage.

With employment law arguably on the backburner for politicians, and the expected lengthy negotiations after Article 50 has been triggered, we are unlikely to see significant changes to the landscape of employment law for some time, leaving us with uncertainty as to where employers and employees will stand once the dust has settled. But forewarned is forearmed and this short series of Brexit bites published weekly for the next six weeks will touch on some of the key issues raised as a result of the country’s decision to leave the EU. We will discuss what might come out of the woodwork and how companies can take steps to get ahead of the curve…

Part 1: EU citizens – will they stay or will they go?

Part 2: Dealing with harassment in the workplace post-referendum

Part 3: The European Union as a philosophical belief

Part 4: Looking overseas

Part 5: Is there law after Brexit?

Part 6: What's not changing?