Reform of trade union laws - phase three

Implementation date: October 2026

The Employment Rights Bill includes various provisions to reform industrial relations law.

The Government has indicated, in Implementing the Employment Rights Bill: Our roadmap for delivering change, that the following measures will take effect in October 2026:

• a new right of union access to the workplace (both physical and virtual), to meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers and to facilitate collective bargaining;
• employers required to provide their workers with a written statement that they have the right to join a trade union;
• employers required to provide trade union representatives with reasonable accommodation and facilities;

• a new right to time off for trade union equality representatives; and
• strengthened protection from dismissal and detriment for union members and their representatives taking protected industrial action.

The Government has not yet confirmed when the following measures will take effect:

• unions required to secure only a simple majority of those voting to have a mandate for industrial action, with no requirement for any level of turnout or support threshold; and
• extension of the industrial action mandate expiration from the current six months to 12 months.

See Reform of trade union laws - phase one and Reform of trade union laws - phase two for details of reforms to be implemented at different times.