The Employment Rights Act had a long and complicated Parliamentary journey which it finally completed on 16 December 2025. It received Royal Assent two days later.
Background
In this briefing we'll be focusing on part 4 of the Act, which addresses trade unions and industrial action. The aim of these measures is described in the Plan as follows:
“Labour will update trade union legislation, so it is fit for a modern economy, removing unnecessary restrictions on trade union activity and ensuring industrial relations are based around good faith negotiation and bargaining.”
If you expand the headings below you can find information about these provisions arranged by topic.
Where known, we have indicated when each group of measures is likely to take effect, based on the government’s implementation timetable published in July 2025.
See here for our briefing focusing on the changes to employment rights set out in parts 1 and 2 of the Act. Other elements of the Act include establishing the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body and creating the Fair Work Agency to bring together different government enforcement bodies.
What’s in the Act?
In what are some of the most detailed measures in this part of the Bill, new provisions will be added to our trade union legislation to create a framework for access agreements. This process will be enforced by the Central Arbitration Committee with a right of appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
Consultation/regulations
The all-important details of exactly how a request for an access agreement should be made, how it should be responded to and the process to follow if there is no agreement will be set out in regulations. Consultation on these regulations was launched in October 2025 and closes on 18 December 2025.
The government currently plans to bring these measures into effect in October 2026.
What’s in the Act?
This Act would remove the special thresholds for industrial action ballots implemented by the Trade Union Act 2016. That means that there will no longer be a minimum 50% turnout requirement in order for industrial action to be approved. The additional requirement for “important public services”, which requires at least 40% of the workers balloted to support the industrial action, will be also removed.
In addition, there will be changes to the information that needs to be given in ballot papers and to length of notice that unions need to give employers of planned industrial action, which will be reduced from 14 to 10 days.
The mandate period (ie the length of period after which the union would need to conduct a new ballot) will be extended from 6 to 12 months (with no option for extension by agreement, as currently applies).
These measures will be implemented on 17 February 2026, except removing the 50% turnout requirement, which is likely to take effect in April 2026.
These measures will be implemented two months after the Bill receives Royal Assent, except removing the 50% turnout requirement, which is likely to take effect in April 2026.
Note: The House of Lords is currently resisting the repeal of the turnout threshold, but we expect the government to prevail on this issue.
What’s in the Act?
The Act will repeal the restrictions on ‘check-off’ for public sector employees introduced on 9 May 2024 via the Trade Union (Deduction of Union Subscriptions from Wages in the Public Sector) Regulations 2024.
This repeal will take on 17 February 2026.
What’s in the Act?
The Act aims to make it easier for unions to secure recognition by invoking the statutory procedure. The requirement at the application stage for a union to demonstrate that there is likely to be majority support for trade union recognition will be removed. In addition, there will no longer be a requirement for a 40% support threshold at the recognition ballot stage. Unions would therefore only need to secure a simple majority in favour to have recognition approved.
Consultation/regulations
The government plans to consult shortly on reducing the 10% application threshold for the Central Arbitration Committee to accept a trade union recognition case. The Act provides that this threshold can be set at between 2% and 10% by regulations.
The government currently plans to introduce these measures in April 2026.
What’s in the Act?
The Act requires employers to provide trade union representatives who are taking time off for trade union duties with reasonable facilities for carrying out those duties where requested.
The Act also creates the right to time off and access to facilities for a new group of workers: equality representatives. The Act specifies the training these representatives must undertake before being entitled to this new right.
These measures are likely to take effect in October 2026.
Finally, the Act repeals the provisions that currently allow a Minister to make regulations requiring public sector employers to report the time off taken for trade union duties and activities. These duties have been in place since April 2017.
What’s in the Act?
The requirement, introduced by the Trade Union Act 2016, for unions to appoint picket supervisors during industrial action will be removed.
This repeal will take effect on 17 February 2026.
What’s in the Act?
The current protections against being dismissed for taking part in protected industrial action would be extended, so that these apply throughout the period of industrial action, rather than during the first 12 weeks only. These measures will take effect on 17 February 2026.
In addition, the Act creates a new right for workers not to be subjected to detriment “for the sole or main purpose of preventing or deterring the worker from taking protected industrial action, or penalising the worker for doing so”. This will plug a gap in the legal protection for union members identified by the Supreme Court in April 2024. In that decision it ruled that current legislation -where industrial action is treated differently from other trade union activities - is not compliant with article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of association.
Consultation/regulations
The types of applicable detriment will be defined by regulations. It is likely that there will be an exception which will continue to allow employers to withhold payment for duties that workers are not performing while on strike.
Consultation on this group of measures is expected to launch in early 2026 and the Government currently plans to bring them into effect in October 2026.
What’s in the Act?
This Act creates a new right for workers to be given a written statement that they have the right to join a trade union. This must be given to the worker at the same time as the statement of written particulars of employment – ie by their first day at work.
Consultation/regulations
Regulations will specify the content of this statement and whether it needs to be given at other times, as well as at the beginning of employment.
Consultation on these regulations launched in October 2025 and will close on 18 December 2025.
The government currently plans to introduce these measures in October 2026.
What’s in the Act?
The amendments to trade union legislation made by the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 were repealed on 18 December 2026. The 2023 Act allowed minimum service levels to be applied within certain key sectors during strike action. This enabled employers to issue a work notice, to require people to work on a day of strike action. However, while these measures were in force, there was not a single occasion when they were invoked by an employer.