Employment Law Digest April 2026: Impact of the Employment Rights Act – the resurgence of trade unions?

Answers to this question often vary, although most businesses will reference the reduction of the unfair dismissal qualifying period to 6 months, or the significant changes to zero hours and low hours contracts. However, for a significant number of businesses, the key concern they have about the changes is the potential rise of Trade Unions and forced involvement in their business.

This is not all businesses, but it is certainly a notable proportion. The feeling expressed by these businesses is fear of the impact the Trade Union may have. This may well be as a result of a view of unions as representing an adversarial relationship: a them versus us perception of how unionised environments operate. However, from many years of advising unionised businesses what strikes me is that some organisations have a genuinely effective relationship with the union and the partnership they have built up significantly assists in making positive change happen within the business. Of course, this is not the experience of all.

Trade union membership in the UK has been in steady decline since 1979, peppered with the occasional rise in membership, albeit that trends seem to have been temporary. The Employment Rights Act 2025 marks a significant shift in UK industrial relations, repealing many restrictive measures introduced over the last decade and introducing new protections for workers and trade unions.

These changes are as follows:

Repeal of Minimum Service Levels

This  was repealed immediately upon the Employment Rights Act 2025 receiving Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. This removed the power for the Secretary of State to set minimum service levels during strikes in sectors like health, transport, and education and employers can no longer issue “work notices” to compel specific employees to work during lawful industrial action.

Industrial Action: Enhanced Protections

New protections for workers taking part in lawful industrial action came into effect on 18 February 2026 as follows:

• Unfair Dismissal:
  • The previous 12-week limit for automatic unfair dismissal protection has been removed.
  • Employees are now protected for the full duration of any lawful, protected industrial action.
• Detriment Protection:
  • A new right preventing employers from subjecting workers to any detriment (short of dismissal) for participating in lawful strikes is expected to be fully implemented by October 2026.

Strikes and Picketing Supervision

Several restrictions relating to this were lifted on 18 February 2026 to simplify strike procedures.

• Notice Periods: The notice unions must provide to employers before industrial action has been reduced from 14 days to 10 days.
• Mandate Length: A successful strike ballot mandate now lasts for 12 months, up from the previous six months.
• Picketing Supervision: The requirement for unions to appoint a formal picket supervisor has been scrapped.

Trade Union Recognition and Balloting

Significant changes to how unions gain recognition and conduct votes will be phased in throughout 2026.

• Simplified Recognition: From 6 April 2026, the 40% support threshold for recognition ballots is removed; only a simple majority of those voting will be required.
• Lower Thresholds: The membership threshold required to apply for recognition is expected to be lowered from 10% to potentially as low as 2%.
• Electronic Balloting: Introduction of e-balloting and workplace ballots is scheduled for August 2026, intended to modernize and increase participation in union votes.

Facilities, Time, Access and Blacklisting

• Accommodation and Facilities: From October 2026, union representatives gain a new right to “reasonable accommodation and facilities” to perform their duties.
• Equality Reps: A specific right to paid time off for union equality representatives will be introduced in October 2026.
• Access: Also from October 2026, Unions have the right access workplaces (both physical and digital access) to organise, recruit, and support workers, and to facilitate collective bargaining, but specifically not to organise industrial action.
• Blacklisting: The government has gained new powers to update anti-blacklisting regulations, including protections against the use of predictive technology to vet union activists. These updates are expected in 2027.

All of these broaden the protection for those involved in trade union activity and make it much easier both for unions to gain recognition and to take industrial action. However, perhaps the most significant change is the duty to inform workers of the right to join a union, which is due to come into force in October 2026.

Duty to inform of right to join a union

Under this new duty, employers will be required to give a written statement to their workers, informing them of their right to join a trade union at the start of their employment and at other times.

We don’t know yet what this statement needs to look like, but what we do know is that employers, whether they recognise a union or not, will be required to inform workers of their right to join a union. This change, taken with the changes set out above, is causing concern for some businesses who feel that they have been forced into a position where they are effectively recruiting for the unions.

What does this mean for me?

The extent to which the changes set out above will have an impact on your business will very much depend on individual circumstances, whether you are unionised or not and if so, what the relationship is like with the recognised union. Businesses with effective alternative arrangements such as employee councils or other form of representative committee are perhaps less likely to see a significant impact of these changes. However, for businesses where there is any form of employee relations issue, and/or there is no effective form of employee consultative committee, there is likely to be a significant impact and we would recommend taking advice to consider how to manage these changes as soon as possible.

For further advice, please contact your usual advisor or contact a member of our employment team.