23 January 2025
Introduction
The Employment Rights Bill (2024) marks a sea change in employment relations in the UK, conferring a range of proposed new rights for workers both individually and collectively. This legislation has significant implications for employers, employees, and industrial relations more broadly.
In response to this shift and the many questions it raises, an Employment Relations Thought and Action Group (TAG) was established under the Engage for Success banner in December 2024. Led by Lucy O’Melia (IPA) and Sarah Pass (NTU and EFS), the group brings together a diverse cross-sector network of managers, leaders and HR professionals to explore the Bill’s impact on employment relations and the strategies that can be deployed to maximise its intended benefits for both employers and the workforce.
In January 2025, the TAG convened a one-hour roundtable with thought leaders from across the industrial relations landscape – trade unions, employer bodies, and trade bodies. The event explored an overall view of the Bill’s potential impact on workforce engagement and discussed strategies and approaches to enable employers to get ahead of the legislation and ‘make work pay’ for their employees. Chaired by Nita Clarke OBE, Director of the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA), senior representatives from the CIPD, FDA Trade Union, Make UK, NHS Employers, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, and academics from Nottingham Business School shared their insights. These perspectives will help inform the priorities of the TAG as it seeks to deliver value for its members and the wider Engage for Success community.
The roundtable highlighted several crucial themes that will shape the approach to employment relations in the wake of the new legislation
1. Face the Fear
For many organisations who already have a well-established working relationship with trade unions, the Bill did not represent any significant concern. However, this was not the case for organisations who had limited experience in the nuance of effective industrial relations. Instead, the Bill created a sense of fear around trade union access rights and the impact of the legislation.
Ahead of the Bill, the group believed that employers should consider taking a more proactive approach that sees them engage with trade unions ahead of any bid for recognition. Understanding where the workforce’s appetite lies when it comes to employee voice should allow employers to assess whether their current model is fit for purpose, and the potential role a trade union could play in enhancing it.
2. Recognise the value of conflict
The difference between conflict and dispute was highlighted as an important delineation to make. By recognising the separate and legitimate agendas of each party, as well as the validity of both individual and collective interests, trade unions and employers can lay the groundwork for clarity in conflict that leads to productive resolution and minimises escalation through zero-sum thinking. This may represent a departure from existing approaches among some trade unions and employers.
3. A shift in employment relations practice
It was recognised that there has been a trend in recent decades towards HR practice that requires the trade unions to be ‘managed’. In certain spheres, this has led to an atrophying in skills such as compromise, negotiation and long-term relationship building.
“How do you negotiate? How do you compromise? How do you have long term reciprocity? I think that’s bedrock stuff for practitioners and we really need to explore that”
This requires upskilling among both HR professionals and business leaders alike.
Nonetheless, it was noted that there are sectors and industries that have maintained mature, strategic relationships with trade unions that share an approach focused on mutual gains. This is often a long-term endeavour and involves a willingness to learn and “take the rough with the smooth”.
4. Challenges for SMEs
Building capacity and capability for effective employment relations can be a particular challenge for micro and small business, and some medium-sized organisations, where dedicated HR support may be limited. Small business owners may not have access to the insight that could explain, for example, high staff turnover.
“We’ve got to find a cost effective, accessible, better way of providing people HR support because it’s an Achilles heel for small firms.”
Work by the CIPD has highlighted the challenges small business owners face when finding the capacity and ‘bandwidth’ to develop their employment relations practice.
5. Broaden the discussion
While pay, terms and conditions are central to effective employment relations, there is much to be learned from the continuous improvement efforts in sectors such as manufacturing, where involvement of the workforce in the improvement of day-to-day operations is often the norm.
“Generally speaking, because a factory relies on the workforce to run the equipment effectively to look at continuous improvement where they do that anyway, you create a culture of engagement that can often spread into a much wider set of topics.”
Involving the workforce in continuous improvement efforts sits outside traditional information and consultation arrangements, but may help shape the agendas of these fora by resolving ‘shop floor’ challenges early and reduce risk of unnecessary escalation.
In addition, by engaging with the broader Good Work agenda (and involving the workforce in this discussion), employers and trade unions have an opportunity to work more holistically on the employee experience by, for example, working jointly on employee wellbeing.
6. Focus on local challenges
Waiting for a national solution to local challenges will have limited effectiveness and employers stand to benefit from understanding the risks and opportunities in their local labour markets. This involves business leaders coming together with devolved authorities to understand local trends, gaps and skills development opportunities.
“How do we create space between stimulus and response for good things to happen? I think that is about skill in the business community and it’s about business leaders in particularly learning that we live in a very different world now.”
7. Don’t wait
Some participants felt that while the Bill’s provisions set a course for greater involvement, it is far from prescriptive and it is up to employers to act now and ask themselves how they can improve voice and ahead of legislation.
Summary
While there is much to be debated around the specific provisions of the Bill, there are lessons that can be learned and applied immediately from both historic and current practice in employment relations to help bring forth a productive industrial relations climate in the UK. Recognising the importance of both individual and collective interests, removing fear through upskilling and proactive engagement with trade unions and local labour relations are all avenues that employers should consider exploring ahead of legislation to create a workforce that is sustainable, engaged and growth-oriented.
Engage for Success would like to thank all roundtable participants for providing their insights during this discussion. Further thanks go to the TAG members whose early input helped to shape this debate.
For more information about the Employee Relations TAG, please contact Lucy O’Melia or Sarah Pass
Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash
