The Human Rights Act (HRA) was trumpeted as the means by which we would be ‘bringing rights home’. However, the home, as a private place, is largely immune from the reach of the HRA and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). In simplistic terms, the convention was drawn up as a supervisory instrument in the context of the relationship between the state and the individual. It was not designed to impinge upon private lives (although, by Article 8, it protects them).
For the most part, the workplace is also a private arena. Save where the employer is a public authority, the relationship between employer and employee does not obviously require the input of a document entitling either party to the enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms. This may explain why the impact of the HRA upon workplace relations has been far slower and more limited than in other fields such as housing, prisons and crime.
