Equality law and
developments on equal pay had been "profoundly driven" by Europe. As
the UK had voted out of its EU membership, equal pay laws for men and women may
find different standard as future governments may attempt to tamper the laws.
The UK government said
the Parliament will repeal the equality laws through a vote.
According to Professor
Aileen McColgan and Professor Catherine Barnard of Kings College London, the
laws would depend on the government of the day.
She said that nothing
may change after the UK leaves the EU as most directives was implemented by
UK
law.
"But on another
level it means there would be no underpinning or demand for maintenance of the
current provisions, so... it is very troubling as the whole thing could be
knocked away", she told MPs.
"My particular
concern would be about equal pay... because it's probably economically rational
to pay women as little as you can get away and if you don't have strong
legislative provisions to prevent that, that is one of the areas that could be
very problematic."
Catherine Barnard,
professor of European law at Cambridge University, told MPs it would be very
difficult for a government to repeal protections against discrimination on the
grounds of sexual orientation or religion and belief, as it was "so
politically sensitive".
If the UK opted for a
Norway-style model, and remained a member of the European Economic Area,
EU laws
would continue to apply, Prof Barnard said.
"More difficult
is if there is no model at all or a really hard Brexit," she added, as the
UK would "lose EU law acting as this floor" and lobby groups were
worried that a government may then "decide to lower the standards".
It could be "a
complete free-for-all as far as employment law and equality legislation are
concerned", she said, as it would be "for the government to decide
which rules it wanted to keep" - although she acknowledged any changes
would require parliamentary approval.
