Human Rights: implications for labour law

Abstract

The author considers the potential of the Human Rights Act to influence the future of labour law. First, the development of common law can be based on fundamental human rights principles. Statutory interpretation of employment legislation can also be grounded on this potentially more principled approach. Second, the new legislation may hasten the development of a common law of privacy and provide greater protection for expression of political and religious views in the employment context. Third, it changes the criteria against which the propriety of restrictions in the employment relationship should be judged. It is likely that in judicial review cases the more rigorous proportionality standard rather than the Wednesbury unreasonableness test will be used. Finally, the effective application of human rights in the private sphere is likely since the Convention case-law, the debates in Parliament and the Act itself strongly suggest that the Convention rights will have an indirect effect. The domestic courts must take the opportunity to develop their own human rights standards.