Implementing the Employment Rights Act: Further Consultation

Kate Dearden Excerpts

Thursday 26th February 2026 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Kate Dearden)]

Our plan to make work pay will modernise our employment rights legislation, extending the employment protections already given by the best British companies to millions more workers across the country. Strengthening this underlying framework will help build an economy based on fair competition between businesses, greater productivity in the workplace, job security for workers, and fair reward for hard work.

We are taking a phased approach to engagement and consultation on these reforms. This will ensure all stakeholders have the time and space to work through the detail of each measure and to help us implement each in the interests of all.

Following the launch of consultations on trade union recognition, fire and rehire, agency work, tipping, and flexible working earlier this month, we are today launching consultations on trade union detriments and collective redundancy. Alongside a programme of direct stakeholder engagement, these consultations will support us in determining how best to put our plans into practice.

Consultation 1: trade union detriments

The Employment Rights Act 2025 establishes stronger protections from detriments for workers taking industrial action, in order to ensure they are treated fairly and respectfully. It prohibits the use of “detriments of a prescribed description” for the sole or main purpose of penalising, deterring or preventing a worker from taking part in official industrial action.

The power in the Act enables the Government to make regulations to either prohibit all detriments, or to prescribe the detriments that are prohibited. The consultation will seek stakeholder views on the benefits and challenges of these two options. It will run for eight weeks and close on 23 April 2026. Following consultation, the Government will develop their final policy position, with the intention to make regulations and deliver the resulting policy by October 2026.

Consultation 2: collective redundancy

The Government are consulting on the threshold number that will trigger collective redundancy consultation where employers propose to make a large number of redundancies across their entire organisation. We wish to set this number at a level that offers protections for working people, while avoiding scenarios where larger employers find themselves left in a constant state of consultation.

The consultation will seek views on the methods that may be used to set the threshold, and on the level at which the organisation-wide threshold could be set. Specifically, it will seek views on the proposed options, including their impact on employers, the extent to which they protect employees, and whether there are any other options for the threshold or method.

This consultation will run for 12 weeks and will close on 21 May 2026. Following the consultation, the Government will consider the responses carefully before developing a final policy position. Any changes will be delivered through secondary legislation, with regulations expected to enter into force in 2027.

Next steps for consultation

This package of consultations sets out the next steps in delivering our plans. They are critical to shaping the practical implementation of the legislation, helping the Government to deliver reforms that are both effective and inclusive. It is in everyone’s interest to get the relationship between employer and worker right. These consultations will help us make work pay for both.

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