Industrial relations are moving up the legal risk agenda. New measures under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA) are designed to strengthen the rights and influence of trade unions in the workplace. The first set of amendments will come into force on 18 February 2026. At the same time, we’re continuing to see some disputes over workplace decisions escalating into industrial action – bringing significant disruption and reputational risk.

It’s time to review your industrial relations strategy, and if you haven’t engaged with unions before you should prepare for the possibility of recognition applications and the need to work with unions in the future.

In this article, we look at some of the changes ahead and how you can navigate this shifting landscape effectively.

Key concepts in trade union and industrial dispute law

The law relating to trade unions and industrial action is complex. Some of the key concepts are:

Rights and protection

Trade union members and representatives benefit from a range of statutory rights and protections under the law.

Changes under the ERA

The ERA is set to make some significant changes to the law in this area. These include:

Key changes on 18 February 2026:

• Changes to rules for industrial action notification and ballot requirements – these will be simplified with less prescriptive content requirements. The notice period for industrial action will also reduce from 14 days to 10 days, and once a vote in favour of action has taken place, it will provide a 12 month mandate for industrial action instead of the current 6. These changes will make it ‘easier’ to conduct industrial action at shorter notice, over a prolonged period, and with greater uncertainty as to when the action might take place.
• Picketing supervision – the requirement for union supervision of picketing will be repealed. These changes will make it make it harder to plan for and manage picketing activity, increasing risks around site security, business continuity and compliance monitoring.
• Enhanced protection against dismissal – the existing 12 week protected period (whereby a worker cannot be dismissed for taking industrial action) will be abolished, so that it will be automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for taking part, or having taken part, in official and protected industrial action regardless of how long they have been taking the action for.

Future changes

Click here to see our Employment Rights Tracker for a timeline of key changes.

• Changes to balloting and electronic balloting – there will be a repeal of the 50% turnout threshold so a ballot for industrial action will simply need a majority of those voting (the 40% support threshold for workers engaged in important public services will also be repealed with effect from 18 February 2026). Electronic balloting is also to be introduced.
• Strengthening trade union access to the workplace and a new duty on employers to inform workers of their right to join a trade union – both measures may lead to greater trade union visibility in the workplace and to greater union membership and presence.
• Additional enhanced protections – changes will be made to introduce protection against detriment for taking protected industrial action. Trade union representatives will also have better rights and protections, including in relation to time off and facilities and the rules relating to blacklisting of union members will also be strengthened.
• Simplification of the statutory trade union recognition procedure – a number of measures will be introduced including: the ability for the government to lower the required percentage of trade union members in the bargaining unit to a figure between 2% and 10% (it is currently 10%) for the CAC to accept an application (and at other stages of the recognition scheme); removing the requirement at application stage (and at other stages of the recognition scheme) for a union to demonstrate majority support; and removing the 40% support threshold from recognition ballots. There are a number of other measures concerning recognition which relate to provision of information about workers in the bargaining unit by the employer, access agreements and unfair practices. All of these measures may make securing trade union recognition easier, and you may find you face more recognition applications.

How can you navigate the shifting employment landscape?

In light of the upcoming changes increasing trade union visibility in the workplace and simplifying the statutory trade union recognition procedure, proactive employee relations strategies will be even more important, to make sure your workforce remain engaged and feel that their concerns are being heard and addressed.

Forthcoming changes to the rules for industrial action, will mean that you will need to strengthen relationships with trade unions and ensure collective agreements contain clear, well-defined processes for negotiation, helping to reduce the risk of disputes escalating into industrial action. You should also ensure you have contingency plans in place so you can still run operations in the event of industrial action.

The shifting emphasis on equality of bargaining power may also prompt a reassessment of strategic approaches. Successfully implementing new business decisions and organisational change will increasingly depend on bringing people with you. In this environment, regular dialogue and effective communication will be critical.

We discuss some of these strategies in this short video clip:

How can we help you?

We can help give you the tools to work collaboratively with trade unions and help protect your business in the event of a dispute:

• Training and upskilling – this is key for employers and managers who are not used to dealing with unions so they can work effectively with them.
• Recognition – we can provide advice and support in the event of an application for statutory recognition or if you are considering voluntary recognition, along with assistance in negotiating a collective agreement.
• Dialogue with unions – if your business is planning changes or conducting pay reviews, we can advise on the correct procedure to be followed and assist in ensuring negotiations with the union are conducted in a productive manner and fully exhausted, in order avoid disruptive industrial action.
• Determining whether the action is official and protected – even with the best will in the world, it may not be possible to avoid industrial action altogether. We can assist you in distinguishing between official and unofficial action and determining whether balloting and notification procedures have been complied with. Where action is unlawful, we can help you consider the options available, including obtaining court orders to prevent an unlawful strike. We can also support you with the process of assessing whether dismissal of employees may be fair.
• Running your business during industrial action– as part of contingency planning, the business may need to re-deploy non-striking employees from other parts of the business based in other locations to cover the work of striking employees and/or wish to use casual/agency staff. However, there are strict legal rules which severely restrict the use of agency workers. Where non-striking workers are to be redeployed, careful consideration should be given to health and safety obligations and training. We can support you in preparing a plan to keep the business operating and ensure the plan is legally compliant. 
• Conduct during the action –while peaceful picketing is permitted, urgent legal action may be taken when faced with unlawful picketing, including engaging with the unions, taking court action and dealing with individual cases where a picketing employee’s action constitutes misconduct.
• Urgent injunctions – we have a team of highly experienced disputes lawyers who are experts in advising clients through complex and urgent High Court action which may be required in connection with managing and mitigating the commercial risks arising out of industrial actions.

If you need support or have any questions, please get in touch with Charlotte Smith or one of our Employment team.