UK Employment Laws: Effectiveness and Key Debates

Introduction: The Employment Law Debate in the UK

Research shows that the last three Parliaments exhibited a trend toward greater employment protection. However, some argue that these protections are still not sufficient, while others contend that employment regulation should be scaled back. Nevertheless, UK employment law maintains comparatively lower levels of worker protection and greater labor market flexibility than many other EU Member States. In France, for example, industrial relations law has preserved straightforward limitations on industrial action that were introduced by earlier Conservative governments. A range of measures has succeeded in raising rights and protections for working parents and their carers. Even so, a number of major employment law issues remain unsettled.

This essay discusses the substantial debate surrounding the volume of employment legislation that currently governs the workplace in the UK. Some participants in that debate would like to see employment law reduced, while others argue that existing law does not go far enough to protect the workforce. The tension between these two positions runs through nearly every area of employment regulation examined below.

Equality, Discrimination, and Protected Characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 was primarily designed to harmonize anti-discrimination law, and much of it duplicates pre-existing requirements that were subsequently repealed. Those earlier provisions were canceled even after a number of amendments had been made to them. Several of the resulting changes were resisted by the Conservatives; the most notable concerned the socio-economic equality duty, which would have placed an obligation on public sector organizations to address socioeconomic inequality, and proposals to require larger employers to publish data on gender pay gaps within their workforce. There was also extensive debate over whether social class should be added as a protected characteristic (Aronowitz, 2012). To this day, that question remains a matter of continuing review.

Discrimination on the grounds of race has been a growing concern, and some argue that the law does not do enough to protect minority workers. One specific debate has focused on whether "caste" should be added to the definition of "race" under the Equality Act 2010, or whether the Act can already be interpreted to include caste under the existing definition of race. The UK government had previously indicated its intention to amend the Equality Act 2010 to cover caste discrimination. In the meantime, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) was considering the validity of an employment tribunal ruling that the current wording of the Equality Act 2010 is sufficient to allow caste discrimination claims to be brought ('Economically dependent workers', 2015). Opposing arguments hold that the word "caste" would make no practical difference, and that its absence does not render the legislation insensitive to minority groups — though those from affected communities frequently disagree.

Some legislators also objected to changes made to discrimination questionnaires in 2014, when they were abolished and replaced with a new, more informal procedure. Many businesses welcomed this change, as discrimination questionnaires had been seen as lengthy, time-consuming, and burdensome to complete.

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