Brexit – now for real on 31 January 2020 (19/25)
25 years of EWC directive, 25 years of EWC Service
The UK will leave the European Union on January 31st at midnight (Greenwich +1 hr). The most probable scenario at the time of writing this blog is that there will be a transition period until the end of 2020.
This transition period has been agreed upon between the European Commission and the UK government in a withdrawal agreement. The agreement has passed the House of Commons in the UK and is now in the House of Lords. When the whole UK Parliament is in agreement, the last hurdle is to be found in the European Parliament. The Members of the European Parliament will have to vote on 29 January 2020.
Although it is expected that the withdrawal agreement will pass both the UK and the EU parliament, nothing is sure yet until the 29th of this month. The whole Brexit has been full of surprises so far. Without the withdrawal agreement, on the 31st of January we would have a crash-bang-wallop hard-Brexit.
But let’s take the most probable scenario: Brexit takes at 31 January 2020 under the ruling of the withdrawal agreement. The withdrawal agreement will ensure that Union law will be applicable during the transition period, until 31 December 2020. There are exceptions to this rule, but the European Works Council (EWC) is not one of them. This means that until the end of the year, the UK will be in the scope if your EWC agreement, meaning that the employees in the UK are part of the total number of employees, transnational topics that involve the UK are matters for Information and Consultation in the EWC and you will keep the UK members on board.
If you have an EWC agreement under TICER, the UK transposition regulation of the European Works Council Directive, nothing will change until the 1 January 2021 and you can still go the Central Arbitration Committee in case of disputes.
Does all the above means that you do not have to do anything? Well, we would recommend that you take action to keep the UK on board of your EWC also after the transition period ends. More details on this you can find in our former Brexit blog: https://www.sbiformaat.nl/blog/brexit-burning-bridges
Have you prepared your EWC for Brexit? Please let us know.
Mariëlle van der Coelen, EWC trainer and advisor
