"Workers' rights in this country were mostly won by the trade union movement, not by the diktat of the EU."
Trade unions in the UK have lost much of their power. Most recent workers' rights have come from the EU. From the TUC:
The EU-derived rights outlined in the report include:
I see a lot of these 'facebook' style claim for the benefits that the EU has given us. Many are false claims seeking to laud the EU for workers protections that were won many years, centuries even, before the EU even existed and legislated for by UK Parliament!
The right to 20 days' paid annual leave a year.
In 1871, the Bank Holiday Act gave workers a few paid holidays each year - four new public holidays were introduced in England and Wales, and 3 new ones in Scotland. The amounts of paid leave legislated by the UK Parliament rose steadily throughout the 20th century. There is nothing to suggest it would have ceased to rise had we not joined the EU.
The right to equal pay for work of equal value between men and women.
WRONG
The Equal Pay Act 1970 was passed BEFORE the UK joined the EU.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Pay_Act_1970
The right to high standards of health and safety at work.
The UK have been passing laws to improve health and safety at work since 1833.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_Acts
Millions of workers have benefited from the EU-derived workplace rights covered in the report. Examples include:
Six million workers gained new or enhanced rights to paid holidays (two million of whom had previously had no paid annual leave.)
Uk workers have been enjoying paid holidays since the C18th, (mainly religious festivals). The 1871 Act gave them paid holidays throughout the UK.
^Around 400,000 part-time workers, most of them women, gained improved pay and conditions when equal treatment rights were introduced.
Landmark legal cases with far reaching effects for other workers have resulted from women becoming able to challenge unequal pay in workplaces where men and women were concentrated in different kinds of jobs.^
See above - Equal Pay Act 1970 introduced equal pay and conditions before we joined the EU.
You seem to have forgotten that this Tory Government raised the minimum wage - without any help from the EU, where, in some parts of the EU, the minimum wage is the equivalent of 82p per hour.
Nursery school assistance was introduced in the C21st by UK Government - not by EU.
Why has the EU not outlawed the pernicious zero hours contract which completely contradict the European Social Model on which the EU employment model was founded.
The EU is not the font of all workers protection that some would like to paint it as.
Give credit where credit is due.