How industrial relations are going to be transformed in UK

But recent legislative changes mean that unions are going to be more present and visible in the workplace than they have been in decades.

Employment Rights Reform

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces the most significant reforms to trade union law in a generation, with the aim of expanding and empowering the trade union movement. But what does this actually mean for employers?

In short, a complete overhaul of the industrial relations landscape. The reforms will affect all businesses, including many which have had little or no previous engagement with unions. The changes will make it much easier for trade unions to campaign, win recognition and call industrial action. It will reset the relationship between unions and employers and will empower the unions in ways not seen in generations.

The combined effects of the changes are that unions will almost certainly become active in more workplaces, with it become easier to establish a foothold of members amongst staff. The introduction of a new right of access will allow unions to access workplaces, for a wide range of purposes including meeting, supporting, representing, recruiting and organising workers. Employers who have never dealt with unions previously may end up balancing multiple requests from different unions at the same time.

Changes to recognition will also widen access to workplaces for the unions, with the Employment Rights Act giving the power to drop the required threshold for union members in a proposed bargaining unit (currently 10 per cent) to as low as 2 per cent of the relevant bargaining unit. This, coupled with the removal of a requirement that at least 40 per cent of all workers in a proposed bargaining must vote in favour of recognition for a ballot to be successful, mean that employers could end up recognising a union with only a very small (but potentially vocal) minority voting in favour.

With unions having more of a presence in the workplace, associated industrial relations disputes are inevitably going to rise. For example, with unions being more active in the workplace, more employees may be likely to become union members or engage in union activities. They may then seek to argue that actions of the employer relate to that membership or activities (even where they might not be).

Risk and engagement

Once unions have access to the workplace and recognition in respect of workers, there can then be issues arising out of collective bargaining, including industrial action and litigation.

Employers need to be live to these issues now and must take proactive steps to plan for union interest in their workplaces. It is likely that we may see many more examples similar to Rockstar’s in the coming years, even with employers who have never dealt with unions before.

Employers should not, however, view unions as a bad thing to be avoided. In a new landscape where unions will inevitably be active in many more workplaces, fostering a positive union strategy from the outset and building union relationships positively can be beneficial to staff, morale and ultimately business performance. Developing a positive strategy to deal with collective employment issues can and should work for everyone.

Carolyn Miller , employment law partner and head of Glasgow office at Lewis Silkin