Closed shop? Not for long: How new laws are opening doors for trade unions
The first wave of the Employment Rights Act hit the statute books last month, signalling a potential end to the decades-long decline of UK trade unions, but businesses are already feeling the turbulence, triggering a surge of work for City employment lawyers.
The Employment Rights Act has caused turmoil in businesses, not just because of the extensive overhaul of workers’ rights, but also because of inconsistencies in the finer details, which have led to a surge of work for employment lawyers.
One of the new nuggets this Act granted employees last month was several new powers around trade unions, including protections against dismissal for taking industrial action.
And it doesn’t stop there.
As of 6 April, the Act will also make it even easier for unions to gain recognition in the workplace by reducing the minimum membership threshold for securing statutory recognition from 10 per cent to as little as 2 per cent of employees.
Additionally, in October, the Act will allow trade unions to request access to workplaces to meet, support, represent, and recruit new members on-site, giving unions a better opportunity to gain a foothold within a business.
It is the sectors with large workforces, lower pay, or less secure forms of work, such as hospitality, retail, logistics, and social care, that are more likely to be targeted by unions. Across these sectors UNISON, Unite, and GMB have become the biggest unions in the UK.
More strike action?
There was a time when the UK was one of the most strike-prone countries.
But union membership has been in decline since the 1990s, with recent ONS data showing that around 22 per cent of workers are union members, down from nearly 40 per cent in 1990.
This downward trend followed Margaret Thatcher’s departure from office after slashing many trade union laws.
However, there seems to be an uptick in trade union activity, even before Labour unveiled its employment reforms. Data from law firm Littler showed that since 2020, 17 new trade unions have been set up in the UK, primarily focused on the gig economy and healthcare sectors.
Now, with the flurry of new powers, this isn’t expected to slow down anytime soon; instead, lawyers believe there will be a gradual increase in unionisation, including in sectors where it is less prevalent.
Chris Coombes, senior associate at Littler, told Morning Wire, “We may also see organising efforts expand into sectors that have not traditionally been strongly unionised – including higher-paid parts of the economy such as professional and business services – as unions test the opportunities created by the new framework.”
At a time when the economy is flattening, the sluggish labour market is sector-agnostic, and people are losing their jobs due to AI investments, the idea that trade union fever may spread across the City is not a far-fetched notion.
Littler Partner Philip Cameron explained that in sectors where there has been little or no prior union activity (even professional services), employers should prepare for more complex industrial relations going forward.
Pressure growing on employers
Coombes added, “Many lawyers anticipate seeing more recognition campaigns and greater engagement from unions in workplaces that historically had little formal collective representation.”
As reforms from the Act come into force, pressure on employers is already increasing.
Employment lawyers have been busy reviewing the 334-page document, which will have a knock-on effect on how businesses handle hiring processes going forward. Lawyers have told Morning Wire that as people become even more expensive to lay off next year there could be an acceleration ahead of the deadline.
However, some don’t have a playbook for handling unions.
Cameron explained, “Strengthening engagement strategies, updating internal processes and investing in management training and capability will be necessary to navigate this new industrial relations landscape.”
“Some employers may decide to establish employee consultative bodies or conduct engagement surveys to resolve organisational issues and workplace disputes in light of the Act’s push for greater union activity,” he added.
With union power expanding and workplace access rights on the horizon, businesses that have long operated without collective bargaining may soon find themselves navigating unfamiliar territory.
Eyes on the Law is a weekly column by Maria Ward-Brennan focused on the legal sector.