Few are expecting protections for workers to collapse overnight as a response to Brexit.

While the EU has been a major factor in securing improved rights for British workers, most of the changes it has brought about have been enshrined in UK law.

However there are fears that hard-won protections could gradually be eroded by a UK government operating outside the EU. The argument about sovereignty is key, of course. Leave campaigners would argue that they could also be enhanced, because Westminster and Holyrood would no longer have to answer to overarching EU laws.

Employment rights in the UK such as the right to paid leave, legal limits on the number of hours employees can be required to work, or the right to a daily break have their roots in EU law. So do protections for employees who have to take time off work to nurse a poorly child.

Major steps forward for temporary and part time workers - who now have equal rights to things like time off and holiday pay - also came about as a result of EU rules. They have strengthened crucial protections against discrimination for people on the grounds of gender, race, religion, disability, age and sexual orientation.

TUPE rules - which govern staff transferred from one company to another, for example when a public sector contract is won or lost, are also a defence for workers guaranteed by Europe.

Leave campaigners argue that much EU employment law is red tape and meddling which imposes unnecessary costs and other burdens on British businesses.

But most observers also point out that for future trade deals with the EU, Britain would probably have to retain most of EU employment law, even if no longer in the union. Norway, for example, while outside the EU, is bound by EU law for most of its trade agreements.

Of course nobody has pledged to dismantle rules protecting workers in the event of a Brexit. Nevertheless, there are many on the right of the Conservative party who would like to get rid of working time regulations. Protections for agency and temporary workers are also a bugbear for Tory free-marketers.

Yet a case can also be made that many of the protections brought in under the umbrella of EU law are now simply too much part of the UK employment landscape to be changed. Removing legal protections against discrimination, or curtailing parental leave, or holiday entitlement might be easier to do following a vote to leave the EU. But would any government really risk its popularity by doing so?