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The 'B' Word

View profile for Chloe Pereira
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*Sigh* - when will we hear the end of it? You know…Brexit. Just the B word itself has developed this energy sapping property such that it’s become the unmentionable: “It Which Must Not Be Named”. I know I’m not the only one sick of hearing/talking/thinking about it.

I really didn’t want to write about It, but it has this otherworldly power and it literally affects me wherever I turn: work, travel, family. So I thought first, let’s see if we can make it a bit more fun, approachable, down to earth. What are some of the most interesting (aka not very important) things about it? Well, did you know...

  1. Peter Wilding, the man credited with coining the word Brexit, now works as a corporate lawyer in Wolverhampton;
  2. All of the following words tapped into Google include the word Brexit in the auto suggested search results: Who coined, What happens, When will, Is there, Do we, How many – and, my personal favourite - Can (the suggested rest of the search is “Brexit be stopped”)

It’s a short list isn’t it? No fear, I have another suggestion to brighten your B Word woes - if there is just one Brexit hashtag you look at/use, make it this one: #CatsAgainstBrexit. You’re welcome.

We’re frustratingly still in the dark about a lot of things, but in all seriousness here are some employment related things we can be certain of:

  1. Deal or no deal, employment laws as we know them will be the same on 30 March as they are now. We have many statutes and principles derived from case law which come from the EU and they’re here to stay (or, at least, they won’t disappear overnight because of Brexit).
  2. The UK Government will be able to change laws in the future without reference to the EU, so there is the prospect for some of the more unpopular EU derived legislation like TUPE to be amended, or even scrapped.
  3. Free movement of EU nationals in the UK will be the same on 30 March as it is now. EU nationals will be required to apply for Settled Status to be able to remain freely in the UK long term, but there will be an implementation period for this (the residency and stop dates being dependent on whether we are in a deal or no deal scenario). This means no change to whom a company can lawfully employ and what right to work documentation it can rely on until at least 31 December 2020.

Essentially, nothing changes in the short term, and in some recent good news the Government has decided to scrap the fee it had intended to charge EU nationals to apply for their settled status. There are at least two people who I’m very grateful about this for (mum – no need to keep that £65 aside, and dad – you can stop being cross about it now!)

So, watch this space for more information in the months to come, or please get in touch - but bear in mind you’ll only really grab my attention if you use the right hashtag.