The Employment Rights Act 2025 constitutes a landmark change in employment rights not seen in a generation. Significant changes concerning trade union rights form part of the reforms it will implement, introducing new rights and enhancing others.

The changes range from bolstering protections for individuals who are members or representatives of trade unions, to making it easier for trade unions to access new workforces and become recognised by them, as well as requiring employers to inform workers of their right to join them. Some reforms affect employees only, whilst others will apply to both employees and workers. This article will explore and summarise what these changes will look like in practice for those affected.

For the creative industries, like film, TV and theatre, these reforms are worth taking particular note of. Trade unions like BECTU and Equity play a pivotal role in negotiating working conditions, pay and safety standards for productions, making these updates extremely relevant to both employers and workers alike.

Please be aware that not all trade union related changes introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025 are covered in this article. If you would like more information on such other changes, for example changes to information requirements on industrial action ballots, then please reach out to one of our employment lawyers directly.

THE NEED TO KNOWS

THE RIGHT TO JOIN A TRADE UNION

Employers will soon need to inform workers of their right to join a trade union. They must receive a written statement at the same time they’re provided with a written statement of particulars (i.e. an employment contract), or at other “prescribed times”.

This change could have significant implications for production companies and studios in the creative industries. Many workers in this sector including lighting technicians, camera operators, and post-production staff, are freelancers or on short-term contracts. Employers need to ensure that all qualifying workers, regardless of their employment status, are informed of their right to join unions like BECTU and Equity. Practically, this could look like updating onboarding processes for freelancers and ensuring compliance across large-scale productions with multiple contractors.

Details of what information must be included in the statement are yet to be decided and announced. This may include details of rights that workers have against detriment and dismissal on trade union grounds, as well as other trade union related protections afforded to workers under legislation.

Failure to provide workers with a compliant statement will be addressed in the same way as failure to provide workers with a legally compliant written statement of particulars of employment or engagement. Compensation equal to two to four weeks’ pay (currently capped at £751 per week) will be payable to workers who are able to bring this claim in addition to another substantive claim.

It is currently expected that employers will be required to provide such a statement from October 2026.

RIGHT OF ACCESS

A new right will be introduced for trade unions to physically and digitally access workplaces of employers with 21 or more workers for various purposes (e.g. to meet, support and organise with workers, but not to organise industrial action).

This could result in unions requesting access to film sets, studios or post-production facilities to engage with workers. Production companies and broadcasters hiring large teams for TV shows or feature films will need to factor in union access when planning schedules and operations to avoid disruptions.

A Code of Practice has been published to provide employers with practical guidance on how this right to access will operate in practice. This is a draft code that may be changed following a consultation process that closed on 20 May 2026.

A new statutory framework through which trade unions can negotiate physical and digital access to an employer’s workplace will be implemented. Through this framework:

• A union submits a request for access to an employer. If the employer agrees to the access terms, then the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) should be notified and they will record the agreement.
  
• If the employer rejects the request, then negotiations between the employer and union begin.
  
• If those negotiations fail, a party can apply for the CAC to determine whether the union should be granted access. If it rules that it should, then it can impose access terms themselves.

If an access agreement has been breached, a party can complain to the CAC. The CAC can vary the agreement, declare the complaint well-founded (or not), and issue orders for certain steps to be taken to ensure compliance. For subsequent, upheld complaints for repeated breaches of the agreement or breaches of a CAC order, the CAC can issue a penalty. Legislation governing how much of a penalty can be imposed will be introduced; it is intended that a fine up to £75,000 can be imposed at first, increasing to a maximum of £150,000 for a second and £500,000 for a third or subsequent penalty.

It is expected these reforms will be implemented in October 2026.

EXTENSION OF PROTECTION FROM BLACKLISTING

Currently, employers are banned from ‘blacklisting’ trade union members for employment purposes, namely to deny employment, to dismiss them, or to cause detriment to them because of their trade union membership or activities.

The government will extend the prohibition on blacklisting. They will introduce regulations to protect a wider range of people from blacklisting due to trade union membership or activity.

Blacklisting has been a historical concern in the creative industries, especially for freelancers who often rely on positive reputations to secure future work. Crew members or performers involved in union activities may fear being excluded from projects, but these new protections, including against AI-generated or digital blacklists aim to prevent such practices in an industry that is becoming increasingly reliant on automated hiring platforms.

These reforms are intended to strengthen prohibitions against third parties who are not employers or employment agencies from compiling and selling or supplying blacklists, as well as to prohibit such lists being used for discrimination in recruitment or treatment of workers even where the lists have not been compiled for those purposes (for example if AI has created a list of workers which is subsequently sold or supplied or used for the purpose of discriminating against those workers based on their trade union membership or activity).

A consultation on these reforms will take place this year and the reforms are anticipated to take effect in 2027.

TIME OFF AND FACILITIES FOR TRADE UNION OFFICIALS, LEARNING REPRESENTATIVES AND EQUALITY REPRESENTATIVES

Trade union officials are entitled to paid time off during working hours in connection with certain duties and activities or to undergo training in respect of those activities. Recognised learning representatives of trade unions who undertake certain activities are similarly entitled to paid time off to carry out those activities under certain circumstances.

Employers are currently obligated to provide such time off only if it is reasonable in all the circumstances. This will change so that:

• the amount of paid time off employees want to take to carry out such duties will be automatically presumed to be reasonable; and
  
• employers will be required to show that the time off requested is not reasonable. 

If an employee is an equality representative of a trade union recognised by the employer, employers will also now be required to allow them to reasonable time off to conduct certain activities, for example arranging learning or training on matters concerning equality in the workplace. This right will only apply where:

• equality representatives have undergone sufficient training to carry out these activities (and their trade union has given the employer written notice of this fact); or
  
• the trade union has, within the last six months, given the employer written notice that the equality representatives will be undergoing such training. Only one such notice can be given to any one employee, and the relevant training will need to be completed within six months, and the trade union will need to notify the employer that they have completed this training within six months of that notice being provided to them.

Employers will also now have to provide trade union officials, learning representatives and equality representatives with access to facilities that enable them to carry out their duties or training, if reasonable in all circumstances, and if they request them. This may, for example, include providing an office or meeting space.

These changes are anticipated to come into effect in October 2026, and a Code of Practice offering practical guidance on how to abide by these new measures will be provided by ACAS.

DISMISSAL FOR PROTECTED INDUSTRIAL ACTION

This protection only applies to employees who take part in “protected industrial action”. This broadly means industrial action lawfully authorised and endorsed by a trade union that complies with certain requirements, such that it provides the union with certain legal protections.

Previously, employers could not dismiss employees if the main or sole reason for dismissal is that they took part in protected, official industrial action for a period of 12 weeks or less, or during a longer period where employers have not taken reasonable steps to resolve the dispute subject to the protected industrial action. Any such dismissal is automatically unfair.

This could become a key consideration for film and TV productions during union-led strikes or industrial action. Prolonged disputes could lead to significant delays in filming schedules as employers will no longer be able to dismiss employees participating in protected action, even after 12 weeks.

For any protected industrial action taking place on or after 18 February 2026, employers cannot dismiss any employees by reason of their participation in such action irrespective of how long the action takes place.

DETRIMENT FOR TAKING PART IN TRADE UNION ACTIVITIES

Currently, workers have no protection against detriment (i.e. any action short of dismissal) for taking part in protected industrial action.

The Employment Rights Act addresses this by giving workers the right not to be subjected to detriments “of a prescribed description” for taking part in protected industrial action or to deter them from taking such action. Any workers subjected to such a detriment may be awarded compensation and that compensation may be increased if relevant ACAS Codes of practice are not followed by an employer. Following a government consultation which closed on 23 April 2026, the government confirmed that it intends to prohibit all types of detriment. However, workers participating in protected industrial action can still lose their pay during periods when they are not working.

Draft regulations have been published which, if passed, will provide this protection to workers with effect from 30 October 2026.

REFORMS TO STATUTORY UNION RECOGNITION PROCEDURE

If employers do not voluntarily agree to recognise a union, a union has the option to apply to the CAC to impose recognition on an employer’s workforce. Since 6 April 2026, that application process has become much easier.

Under the old process:

• The applying union had to demonstrate that at least 10%  of the group of workers that the union proposes to negotiate and collectively bargain on behalf of (known as the “Bargaining Unit”) were members of that union.
  
• Prior to ordering a ballot for recognising a union, a union had to show it was likely to secure majority support for recognition amongst workers in the Bargaining Unit and demonstrate detailed evidence for this support.
  
• If the CAC ordered a recognition ballot for a union to be recognised, in order to succeed, the ballot outcome would require:
  
• a majority in favour amongst those voting in the ballot; and
  
• the proportion of those voting in favour in the ballot to constitute at least 40% of workers within the Bargaining Unit as a whole.

A number of changes have simplified this process, including:

• changing the test for demonstrating minimum union representation of the proposed Bargaining Unit, which could mean anywhere between 2% to 10% union membership of the Bargaining Unit will suffice;
  
• removing the requirement for unions to show likely majority support for recognition; and
  
• requiring only a simple majority of those actually voting in a ballot for a union to be recognised, removing the requirement for at least 40% of the Bargaining Unit to vote in favour.

In addition to simplifying the process, additional regulations relating to the process will be introduced, including:

• requiring employers to provide the CAC with certain information about workers in a Bargaining Unit within five working days of being notified of receipt of the trade union’s application for recognition (expected to come into force in 2027);
  
• changes to the negotiation period for unions accessing workers in a proposed Bargaining Unit; and
  
• strengthening protection against unfair practices during recognition and derecognition ballots. This will include prohibiting employers from increasing the number of workers in a proposed Bargaining Unit provided to the CAC for recognition purposes, and extending such protection throughout the statutory recognition process, starting from the point where the CAC accepts the union’s application for statutory recognition (expected to come into force in October 2026). 

WHAT NEXT?

The landscape of trade union reform will continue to shift over the next year, with most changes still to be introduced and many still subject to consultation and further decisions from the Government. 

For employers in the creative industries, these changes represent an opportunity to strengthen relationships with unions whilst ensuring compliance. Production companies, studios and broadcasters should review their current policies and prepare for the reforms to avoid potential risks during negotiations with unions.

For further information on these changes and for advice on how to prepare and comply with the new rules, please reach out to Yvonne Gallagher or Harry Wade, the authors of this article.

Please note that this guidance note summarises the changes outlined above and does not serve as formal legal advice.

AUTHORS

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