Key changes to trade-union law expected before the end of 2025

Whilst the Employment Rights Bill 2024-25 (‘the Bill’) has not yet received Royal Assent (become law), some changes to trade union legislation are expected to take effect in the coming months. Other changes are planned for 2026 and beyond.

The Bill has passed through the House of Lords Report stage and its third reading in the House of Lords is scheduled to commence on 3^rd September 2025. With Royal Assent anticipated to take place during the autumn, it is likely these changes will take effect either before the end of this year, or shortly after.

What will change on the day of Royal Assent?

Minimum Service Levels (MSLs) will be repealed immediately.

The Bill will repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 (‘the Strikes Act’) on Royal Assent, which we have covered in detail in this article.

The Strikes Act currently allows the Secretary of State to make Minimum Service Levels (‘MSLs’) for strikes in ‘relevant services’ in the fields of health, transport, education, fire and rescue, border control, and nuclear decommissioning and radioactive waste management services.

Where a union calls a strike in a service to which MSLs apply, the employer has to give the union a ’work notice’ identifying the workers that are required to work and the work they are required to do to ensure the minimum service level is met during the strike.

The Bill will cause the statutory MSLs regime and employer ‘work notices’ to fall away. There will no longer be MSLs, or any related powers, regulations, or definitions.

Employers are ‘strongly encouraged’ to avoid imposing MSLs in the interim period preceding the Strike Act’s repeal.

What further changes will take effect two months after Royal Assent?

A block of union/industrial-action changes are intended to take effect two months after Royal Assent.

1) Notice rules and paperwork will be pared back

• Notice to commence industrial action is expected to drop from 14 to 10 days. From 1 March 2017, the Trade Union Act 2016 (‘the 2016 Act’) increased the minimum period of notice for the commencement of industrial action from 7 days to 14 days. Following consultation, the government stated it would provide for a ten-day notice period, leaving less time for employers to negotiate a stay of industrial action and/or put in place arrangements to reduce the impact of industrial action.
• Ballot voting paper content will be simplified – those entitled to vote where the additional balloting rules on important public services applies, will no longer have to be told whether the number of people voting ‘yes’ was at least 40% of the number individuals who were entitled to vote in the ballot. Whilst this is the only change to the content of ballot voting papers expected to take effect two months after Royal Assent, further simplification of ballot notices will be brought into force through regulations in due course.
• Notices of industrial action will be simplified – the Bill will remove the requirement for a trade union to disclose the number of employees in each category that are expected to take part in the action. This is likely to ensure maximum damage to the employer by making it more difficult for an employer to:
  • spot irregularities in who has been called to take part in industrial action;
  • plan and mitigate; and
  • identify whether the Union have overstepped the mark with who it has induced to take part in industrial action.  
• Additional information requirements for voting papers introduced by the 2016 Act will be removed. As a result, the law will revert to requiring a trade union to ask its members on the ballot paper which type of industrial action they want to take part in. This will be expressed in terms of whether this is strike action or action short of a strike.

In summary, employers will have less advance time and less granular data to plan around and also to challenge. Employers should tighten their processes to plan for rapid communication, shift changes, and site security within a ten-day window.

2) Strike ballot mandates extended

• From 6 to 12 months: A strike ballot mandate will run for 12 months, no longer the 6 months provided for by the 2016 Act. Once a mandate period has expired, the union must hold a new ballot for further industrial action. Following consultation, the government has decided to extend the mandate to 12 months (without the possibility of an agreed extension).
• Plan accordingly: Employers should be mindful that disputes can span a longer period without re-balloting and build longer-horizon negotiation and resourcing assumptions.

3)  Turnout and support thresholds changed

The 2016 Act ballot threshold and support requirements for industrial action to be lawful, will be repealed and replaced as follows:

• Standard industrial action: The minimum 50% turnout requirement of all eligible members will be removed and replaced with a simple majority and no minimum turnout threshold required.
• Important Public Services: The requirement for a 50% minimum turnout and 40% support threshold in favour of action will be removed.  This will be replaced with a simple majority of those turning up voting in favour of industrial action.

In summary, the threshold and support requirements for industrial action have been significantly curtailed. The result is that a significant minority in a collective bargaining unit could vote in favour of industrial action. The importance of employers encouraging those staff against industrial action to vote to make sure they make their vote count becomes more critical.

The removal of the current support threshold will occur two months after Royal Assent. However, the removal of the turnout threshold is likely to be delayed until e-balloting is introduced. Separate regulations will introduce this.

4) Picket Supervision Rules Removed

• The 2016 Act’s picket supervisor requirements (such as named supervisor, armbands and letters) will be repealed..
• Common-law and tort immunities will remain.

Employers should update strike-day protocols—don’t insist on 2016 Act picket formalities as a condition for lawful picketing. Focus on safety, access and respectful conduct, not technicalities.

What changes will take effect shortly after Royal Assent?

• Protection against dismissal for taking industrial action will extend for the whole period of protected industrial action (removing the 12-week limit). Whilst this is expected to take effect on Royal Assent, or shortly after, the change does require separate regulations to bring it into force.

Currently, an employee taking protected industrial action may bring a claim for unfair dismissal, and the dismissal will be regarded as automatically unfair, where both of the following apply:

• The reason (or, if more than one, the principal reason) for the dismissal is that the employee took protected industrial action.
• One of the following applies to the dismissal:
  • the date of the employee’s dismissal fell within the ‘protected period’ (usually the 12 weeks starting with the day the employee first took part in the industrial action);
  • the date of the employee’s dismissal is after the end of the protected period and the employee had stopped taking protected industrial action before the end of the protected period; or
  • the date of the employee’s dismissal is after the end of the protected period, the employee had not stopped taking protected industrial action before the end of the protected period, and the employer had not taken reasonable steps to resolve the dispute to which the protected industrial action related.

The Bill will remove the additional provisions (including the protected period and the requirement for an employer to take reasonable steps). This will mean that protection will be provided both for the full duration of an official, lawful strike and after that strike has concluded: an employee will be automatically unfairly dismissed where the reason (or, if more than one, the principal reason) for the dismissal is that the employee took such protected industrial action.

Employers will lose the option of waiting out the 12-week protection period to bring disputes to a head which shifts the balance towards negotiation, mediation, or arbitration. Any dismissal connected with lawful industrial action – even after many months – will be automatically unfair. Employees do not need two years’ qualifying service to bring such a claim.

Five things employers should do now

1. Retire MSL-based plans and refresh strike-day risk assessments around safety, safeguarding, and continuity without statutory work notices. Train managers accordingly.
2. Shrink your strike-readiness timeline from 14 to 10 days. Create a 10-day action checklist (communication to staff and customers, schedule changes, supplier notifications, site security, payroll contingencies).
3. Expect less granular data in union notices. Build contingency using ranges and scenarios rather than precise headcounts and improve real-time attendance monitoring.
4. Plan for longer mandates. Assume a dispute can run for 12 months without re-ballot; budget and resource accordingly and keep negotiation channels open.
5. Update your legal risk matrix for industrial action:
   • Increase reliance on direct communications with the workforce, including encouraging those that do not agree with industrial action to make their voices heard – a failure to turn up and vote has no impact!
   • Remove reliance on picket-supervisor formalities from 2016.
   • Revisit when (if ever) disciplinary action is lawful in strike contexts, anticipating incoming dismissal protections.

The direction of travel is clear: it will be easier to pass strike ballots, shorter notice will be required, and there will be stronger protections for strikers.

• Immediate risk: operational—less notice, less data, longer mandates
• Medium-term risk: legal­—greater exposure to dismissal claims once that protection commences. Expect trade unions to flex their muscles once these changes kick in.

Please note the content of this article is correct at the time of publication (1st September 2025) and could be subject to change.

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