Employment 2025

UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Phil Linnard, Philippa O’Malley, David Rintoul and Clare Fletcher, Slaughter and May

Four-Day Week An initial pilot looking into the feasibility of a UK four- day working week was run in 2022. Sixty employers took part, and 54 of those maintained their new four- day working arrangements after the pilot concluded. A second pilot took place in November 2024, and its findings are expected to be presented to the govern - ment in the summer of 2025. It remains to be seen what actions the government may take once this sec - ond pilot concludes. The UK does not have as strong a culture of trade union engagement as many of its European neigh - bours. Employees have the right to join an independent trade union. Those who join a union benefit from advice and support in workplace matters, including representa - tion at disciplinary and grievance meetings. Increasing the density of union membership in a work - place also provides a possible route to trade union recognition. Trade unions may be recognised either voluntarily by the employer or via a statutory process. The latter requires the union to satisfy a number of conditions, including that they have at least 10% membership amongst employees and would be likely to attract the support of the majority of employees in a ballot. The ERB grants the Secretary of State a power to reduce the requirement to show at the application stage that at least 10% of workers in the bargaining unit are members of the union (down to as low as 2%). Whether and to what extent this power will be used is yet to be seen and will follow with separate regulations. Once the union is recognised, they are able to negoti - ate agreements with the employer on pay and other terms and conditions of employment on behalf of employees. This process is known as “collective bar - gaining” (see 6.3 Collective Bargaining Agreements ). Recognised unions also have the right to be informed and consulted on a number of issues, including redun - 6. Collective Relations 6.1 Unions

dancies, health and safety and business transfers. They may also instigate industrial action in the event of a dispute with the employer, although this is subject to compliance with a statutory balloting and notifica - tion procedure. Trade unions rights were restricted under the previous Conservative government, including by the imposition of minimum service levels for certain strikes and more wide-ranging restrictions on strike action and ballots for trade union recognition. However, the ERB will remove the requirement for minimum service levels. 6.2 Employee Representative Bodies In the UK, if an organisation has 50 or more employees, the employees have the right subject to certain condi - tions to request that their employer makes arrange - ments to inform and consult them about issues in the organisation. This may result in the formation of a national works council. Usually, this will be a perma - nent consultative body made up of management and employee representatives. Pre-Brexit, UK employers who had at least 1,000 employees throughout the EEA and at least 150 employees in each of at least two of the relevant member states could be required to establish a Euro - pean Works Council (EWC). The EWC has the right to receive information about the business and to be consulted about some of the business’ activities. After 31 December 2020, the UK became a third country for the purposes of EWCs, and UK employees no longer count when determining if an undertaking or group falls within the scope of the EU Directive on EWCs. UK employees may continue to participate in an EWC if the agreement establishing it allows that. There was, however, a consultation launched in May 2024 that considered abolishing the legal framework for EWCs in the UK. At the time of writing, the consul - tation response had not yet been published. Some employers convene more informal “employee forums”, which may have a mandate for consultation on a number of workplace issues (and are typically governed solely by their terms of incorporation, rather than by statute).

698 CHAMBERS.COM