Reform of trade union laws - phase two

Implementation date: April 2026

The Employment Rights Act 2025 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 April 2026: 

• simplification of the union recognition process, including by:
  • removing the requirement for majority support at the application stage;
  • removing the 40% support threshold; and
  • reducing the requirement from 10% membership at the application stage to a level not lower than 2%;
• strengthened protections against unfair practices during the entire statutory recognition process;
• a period of 20 working days to agree union access during a statutory recognition process; and 
• electronic and workplace balloting (following consultation).

In addition, it is expected that the removal of the 50% turnout threshold for an industrial action ballot to be valid will be implemented at the same time as electronic balloting, in April 2026.

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