Employment law update – 5 November 2025 – Liverpool

Liverpool employment law update 2025 blog

The Institute of Employment Rights provided another thought-provoking and informative event, giving attendees an update on the latest developments on the Employment Rights Bill (ERB).

IER Director James Harrison, welcoming delegates, highlighted that while there were positives to be taken from the Bill, there remained many gaps that needed to be addressed.

Professor Ruth Dukes of Glasgow University and vice-president of IER gave a keynote analysis of the Bill, describing it as a good starting point in the reform of employment rights, but, highlighting the decline in trade-union membership since 1979, indicated that far more was needed, that UK workers’ legal protections remained comparatively weaker than elsewhere in Europe, and in many countries beyond, and that the Bill fell far short of the reforms promised in Labour’s New Deal for Workers.

A significant omission from the Bill was that of the New Deal’s clear commitment to establish a single status of ‘worker’ for all but the genuinely self-employed – a commitment now reduced to a plan to consult on it.

“Without a trade-union presence in workplaces, without collective bargaining, employers remain free to interpret legal rules in line with their own priorities,” Ruth said. “They remain free to avoid the law by designating workers self-employed, in one way or another.” 

Jo Seery from Thompsons solicitors, gave an excellent presentation on the practicalities of the Bill, including changes to industrial-action legislation.

Jo pointed to the new right for a worker not to suffer detriment for taking part in industrial action, although this would not come into effect until October 2026. Protection from dismissal for taking lawful industrial action would also be extended from the current twelve weeks to the whole period of the industrial action.

Jo also noted new rights for equality reps to come into force, conditional upon the relevant union giving the employer written notice that the employee is an equality rep, and the employee undergoing relevant training. A useful link for such training can be found at Tued@wmc.ac.uk for TUC training.

Changes to trade-union recognition rules would also remove the current requirement for a minimum 40% turnout in a recognition ballot to a simple majority of those voting in a bargaining unit.

Daniel Kindell of Morrish Solicitors turned to the likely impact of the Bill on ‘fire and rehire’ and collective redundancies.

Daniel pointed to new protections that would deem dismissals to be automatically unfair in circumstances of a  ‘restricted variation’ to an employee’s contract, notwithstanding exceptions arising from an employer’s financial difficulties.

Turning to redundancies, Daniel outlined new responsibilities on consultation, and noted that protective awards would increase to a maximum 180 days’ pay from the 90 days’ pay and would be uncapped – the measures are expected to come into force in April 2026.

Daniel also outlined the government’s ‘roadmap’ to implementation of the majority of the 28 policy changes being introduced by the Employment Rights Bill, again notwithstanding delays resulting from the Bill ‘ping-ponging’ between the two houses of parliament:  the roadmap can be found at Implementing the Employment Rights Bill – Our roadmap for delivering change.

Daniel also highlighted a number of cases that might have had different outcomes had ERB already been law, including Glasgow City Council v Deans et al, Tesco v Usdaw and Catamaran Cruisers v Williams et al.

Sarah Woolley, General Secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union, told attendees that unions needed to push harder for the rights missing from the Bill, declaring that “rights on paper don’t deliver justice at work”.

While welcoming the Bill as a starting point, Sarah questioned how much the legislation would actually change things in the workplace, pointing to serious issues that remained to be addressed, such as zero-hours contracts, employment status and enforcement.

The proposed changes to the right to strike did not go far enough, said Sarah, noting also that rights at work were pointless if they would not be enforced, while collective bargaining needed to be at the heart of employment rights.

On union access to workplaces the balance of power remained very much in favour of the employer, and a legal right for unions to enter workplaces to recruit members and address issues such as health and safety could transform the lives of workers in the ‘gig’ economy.

Adrian Weir, assistant secretary of the Campaign of Trade Union Freedom (CTUF) outlined the historical decline of collective bargaining under the weight of successive rounds of anti-union legislation, and the resulting reduction in the share of national wealth going to wages, and that “without the right to strike, collective bargaining is no more than ‘collective begging.”

The ERB was deficient in many ways including on collective bargaining, fire and re-hire, zero-hours contracts and employment status.

Trade unions also needed to be able to take solidarity action in order to prevent repetition of the scandalous and unlawful dismissal and replacement of P&O workers with low-paid workers open to super-exploitation.

The Bill’s positives were focused on individual rights rather than collective and trade-union rights, so there was urgent need for a campaign for an Employment Rights #2 Bill.

That campaign, launched by CTUF, had ten demands, which could be found at http://bit.ly/DemandERB2, and were already supported by more than 1,500 individuals and 15 national trade unions.

And finally, a view from the ‘blogger’. Trade unionists, myself included, looked forward with eager anticipation to the Labour government introducing legislation that created a fair system for workers, including ending zero-hours contracts and introducing day-one employment rights, but it was clear from the day’s excellent speakers, that although  a small step forward has been taken, many of the promises made have been watered down or ditched in favour of employer-friendly changes.

It is clear that trade unions do need to campaign for an Employment Rights #2 Bill, with a far more robust raft of rights to protect workers whatever their employment status.

The next IER event in the North West will be the Case Law Update, to be held on Wednesday 4 March 2026, at the Mechanics’ Institute in Manchester.

Dave Hawkins, former course co-ordinator for Merseyside Trade Union Education