The Employment Rights Act aims to revitalise the trade union movement and put unions into more UK workplaces. Will it work?
The Employment Rights Act introduces the most significant reforms to trade union law in a generation, with the aim of expanding and empowering the trade union movement. The reforms will affect all businesses, including many which have had little or no previous engagement with unions. They will make it much easier for trade unions to campaign, win recognition and call industrial action. In this article, we consider the impact that these measures will have on employers, and whether the Act will bring about a long-term resurgence for the trade union movement.
The Act introduces a new right for trade unions to access workplaces for a wide range of purposes. These include meeting, supporting, representing, recruiting and organising workers (except for industrial action) and collective bargaining purposes.
Until now, unions have not had a general right to enter workplaces, unless an employer voluntarily agrees to this (for example, under the terms of a collective agreement under which it has already agreed to recognise a union) or when the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) has ordered access in advance of workforce ballot as part of a statutory recognition application.
Under the Act, unions will be able to request access, in the form of:
Under a...
Welcome to Reality Check, NewsGuard’s nonpartisan newsletter that tracks the false claims and conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them. Support us by becoming a premium memb...