Human Rights Act - one year on

Employment lawyers' early optimism about the potential of the Human Rights Act 1998 to require or permit the 'stretching' of existing legislative protections to cover rights abuses not previously caught within them was misplaced, agreed speakers at a recent Institute of Employment Rights¹ conference.

Workers may benefit from interpretive obligations imposed by section three of the Human Rights Act under which primary and subordinate legislation must be compatible with Convention rights.