PERSPECTIVE| FES LONDON What Will Happen to Workers’ Rights after Brexit? KEITH D. EWING December 2017 n The risks of Brexit to employment rights are real. Not to all rights, but to a substantial body of rights currently in force. The government’s promise to protect these rights is hollow: it is binding on no one, and is undermined by the fact that CJEU jurispru­dence will not be binding on British courts in their application of EU derived law, which will become ›British law‹. n There is a real danger of divergence not only in the development of new standards but also in the application of existing standards. Unless a radically different free trade arrangement is negotiated between the EU and the UK, free trade will offer no solution if current best practice is any guide. n The risks of Brexit depend to some extent on electoral outcomes, which are now very unpredictable.