The UK’s Employment Rights Act has made statutory recognition easier to achieve and opened the door to earlier union involvement.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA) has fundamentally changed the balance of power in industrial relations in the UK. The reforms make it easier for unions to secure statutory recognition for collective bargaining over pay, hours, and holiday by lowering several of the hurdles in the process.

These changes go hand in hand with the introduction of access rights in the workplace enabling unions to put a foot in the door to establish initial support. Recognition campaigns are likely to gain traction at an earlier stage, making it important for employers to consider not only how to respond to an application, but where the greatest areas of risk exist.

How the ERA changes trade union recognition

The statutory trade union recognition procedure is set out under Schedule A1 to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA), which applies to organisations with at least 21 workers.

Since 6 April 2026, unions applying to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) no longer need to demonstrate that a majority of workers in the proposed bargaining unit are likely to favour recognition. The previous requirement that at least 40% of the bargaining unit in fact support recognition in a ballot has also been removed. A simple majority of votes casts in favour of recognition is now sufficient.

The membership threshold may also be reduced. Currently, unions need to show that at least 10% of workers in the proposed bargaining unit are members, but the ERA gives the government the power to introduce regulations setting a lower “required percentage” of between 2-10%. It is also anticipated that electronic balloting, which was rolled out for industrial action ballots on 25 August 2026, will be introduced for statutory recognition ballots in 2027.

By way of example, if the government lowers the membership threshold to 5%, in a proposed bargaining unit of 100 workers, only five need to be members of the union and three need to vote in favour of recognition for the union to be recognised to collectively bargain on behalf of the whole unit. The result is that a very small number of union members could potentially trigger a recognition process, thereby introducing collective bargaining arrangements of a much larger workforce.

Access rights and unfair practices during recognition campaigns

Further reforms will be brought into effect later this year and into next year. There are additional access provisions specifically for the statutory recognition process, which will generally operate in a tighter timeframe than is proposed in respect of the new general framework for access rights.

Once the CAC accepts a recognition application, the union has five working days to request access to the workforce. The parties then have 20 working days to negotiate terms of access. If agreement cannot be reached, the CAC has a further period of ten working days to determine access arrangements.

Those access rights enable unions to communicate with workers in the proposed bargaining unit. The government’s draft Code of Practice (currently laid before parliament for approval) suggests that meetings should take place at least once a week and last at least 45 minutes.

It also provides further guidance on permissible physical and digital access (noting that employers do not need to take any steps which would place them in breach of data protection law).

Employers should therefore consider now what access arrangements could be accommodated and what their red lines would be on matters such as site security, health and safety, meeting facilities and digital communications.

Additional reforms are intended to prevent parties from using “unfair practices” during the recognition process. Importantly for employers, the proposed bargaining unit will be frozen when the CAC receives the recognition application. Workers who join the bargaining unit after that point will not be counted for the purposes of the application to prevent the dilution of union support.

Employers will be required to provide the CAC with specified information about workers in the proposed unit within five working days of being notified of the union’s application. If they fail to do so, employers may be subject to a remedial order from the CAC and ultimately recognition may be ordered.

The government’s draft Code of Practice also gives additional guidance about unfair practices by parties, such as inducing workers with money to vote a particular way, coercing workers to reveal their vote, or otherwise using undue influence over the outcome, which can result in a complaint to the CAC and potentially a remedial order.

During any recognition process, employers should ensure their communications with the workforce are not seen as undermining or disrupting the recognition process, whilst taking care to record any instances of irresponsible union behaviour. Communications are therefore likely to need to be carefully planned and reviewed, where appropriate.

How should employers prepare?

Employers with non-unionised workforces may have to rapidly adjust to dealing and potentially negotiating with unions. The consequences of getting it wrong are stark.

If recognition of a union is ordered by the CAC, an employer cannot make a direct offer to the workforce on pay, hours or holiday, or unilaterally impose such changes, unless it is satisfied collective bargaining with the union has been genuinely exhausted, without risking a penalty of nearly £6,000 per union member under section 145B TULRCA.

Employers should not wait for a formal statutory recognition application before considering their strategy. The time to prepare is now. As a start, employers should conduct an industrial relations risk assessment across the workforce, including in non-unionised areas. Turnover data, exit interviews, grievances or disputes about pay or working practices and Tribunal claims may reveal employee dissatisfaction and where recognition campaigns are most likely to gain traction.

Employers should also ensure their records regarding employee roles, functions, locations and reporting structures are up to date and accurate, to enable a considered response to the union’s proposed bargaining unit.

Moreover, employers should establish how any recognition request or CAC application will be addressed and by whom, including how communications with employees will be managed (along with any requests for access during the recognition process, mentioned above).

With lower hurdles in place, a recognition campaign which may have previously struggled to gain support may now reach a ballot. Automatic resistance to a recognition application is not guaranteed to be an effective industrial relations strategy.

Employers should consider engaging with any voluntary request for recognition by unions in order to negotiate a more favourable agreement regarding its scope and bargaining arrangements than may be imposed by the CAC. Proactive management by employers before the union makes a statutory application is imperative.