Reform of trade union laws - phase two

Implementation date: 6 April 2026

The Employment Rights Act 2025 includes various provisions to reform industrial relations law.

The Government has indicated in Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update that the trade union recognition process will be simplified on 6 April 2026, by:

• removing the requirement for majority support at the application stage;
• removing the 40% support threshold; 
• reducing the requirement from 10% membership at the application stage to a level not lower than 2%; and
• introducing a period of 20 working days to agree union access during a statutory recognition process.

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.