Reform of trade union laws - phase two
Implementation date: April 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 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 autumn 2025).
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.