The Employment Rights Bill will bring major changes to trade union and industrial action laws. These include a new right for trade unions to access workplaces, a simpler process for official recognition, and revised rules for industrial action ballots, notices, and mandates.
Some changes will take effect two months after the Bill becomes law, while others will need further regulations, with no confirmed timeline yet
Access to workplaces
New rules will allow trade unions and employers to make ‘access agreements.’ These agreements let union officials reach a company’s workforce—both in person and digitally—for specific purposes, such as recruiting and supporting workers. However, they cannot be used to organize industrial action.
If an employer ignores a union’s request for access or negotiations fail, the union can apply to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) to decide the matter. Either party may also apply if talks break down. Regulations will outline the steps for requesting an access agreement, responding to requests, handling disputes, and the default terms if no agreement is reached.
Statement of trade union rights
Employers must give workers a written notice about their right to join a trade union. This must be provided alongside the section 1 statement and at other specified times. If an employer fails to do this, the worker may receive compensation—either two or four weeks’ pay—following the same rules as a failure to provide a section 1 statement. The amount is subject to the statutory cap on a week’s pay – currently £719.
Statutory recognition
Currently, for a trade union to apply for statutory recognition, it must show that at least 10% of a proposed bargaining unit are union members and that most of them are likely to support recognition. The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) can then grant recognition if either:
- At least 50% of the bargaining unit are union members, or
- A ballot is held where the majority vote in favour and at least 40% of all workers in the bargaining unit support recognition.
The Bill aims to simplify this process by:
- Lowering the membership threshold for CAC applications to anywhere between 2% and 10%,
- Removing the requirement for unions to prove majority support, and
- Eliminating the 40% support threshold in recognition ballots.
Industrial action ballots
- Turnout threshold: The rule requiring at least 50% of eligible members to vote will be removed.
- Support threshold for key public service workers: The requirement that at least 40% of those entitled to vote must support industrial action will also be removed.
- Voting papers: These will be simplified—unions will only need to ask members whether they want to take part in a strike or a lesser form of action.
- Information to voters: Unions will no longer need to tell voters how many people were eligible or whether turnout met the 50% threshold.
- Public service ballots: The requirement to disclose whether at least 40% of eligible voters supported action will be removed.
- Ballot notices and sample voting papers: Unions will no longer need to provide details on employee numbers by category or workplace, or explain how totals were calculated.
- Electronic voting: The UK government has committed to introducing modern and secure e-balloting for trade union votes.
Notice and duration of industrial action
- Notice of industrial action will be reduced from 14 to 10 days.
- The information to be provided in the notice will be simplified: the requirement for a union to disclose the number of employees in each category expected to take part in industrial action will be removed.
- The mandate for industrial action will be extended from 6 to 12 months, with no possibility of extension.
Detriment and dismissal
The Bill introduces a new right preventing workers from being treated unfairly if the main reason is to stop or discourage them from taking protected industrial action—or to punish them for doing so. This closes a gap in current law that the Supreme Court highlighted.
Existing protections against dismissal for participating in protected industrial action are also being strengthened. The 12-week limit on protection will be removed, meaning workers will be safeguarded for the entire duration of a lawful strike and even after it ends. If an employee is dismissed primarily because they took protected industrial action, it will be automatically deemed unfair.
Minimum service levels
The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 allows minimum service levels to be set for strikes in key sectors, including health, transport, education, fire and rescue, border control, nuclear decommissioning, and radioactive waste management. However, this Act will be repealed as soon as the new Bill becomes law.
Check-off in the public sector
Check-off is a system where an employer deducts union membership fees directly from a worker’s wages and transfers the money to the union. In the public sector, this is only allowed if the worker has another way to pay their fees (such as direct debit) and the union compensates the employer for the cost of handling these deductions.
The Bill will remove this restriction, meaning unions will no longer need to offer alternative payment methods or reimburse employers for administrative costs.
Picketing
The requirement on unions to supervise picketing will be removed.
Time off and facilities
- Employers will now have to provide trade union officials and learning representatives with reasonable accommodation and facilities to carry out their duties or training, in line with relevant guidance from an ACAS code of practice.
- Equality representatives currently have no right to time off or workplace facilities—this Bill will change that.
- Public sector employers with more than 49 full-time staff will no longer need to report data on facility time use.
Philip McCabe 5 June 2026