Trade Unions and Industrial Action
Trade unions and staff councils play an important role in the employment relationship, particularly where they are formally recognised. They provide a collective voice for employees and help ensure that workplace decisions are made with transparency and consultation.
At Thrive Law, we support employers in building positive, constructive relationships with trade unions and staff councils based on collaboration, respect and open communication. We understand the complexities these relationships can involve and work with employers to achieve fair and balanced outcomes.
How We Support Employers
We have significant experience supporting organisations across highly unionised sectors — including local authorities, schools, police forces, and large public and private sector employers.
We can advise on:
- Applications for union recognition and recognition agreements
- Collective bargaining and consultation processes
- Industrial relations strategy and communication planning
- Managing and resolving disputes with employee representatives
- Responding to proposed or actual industrial action
- Ensuring compliance with legal duties and procedural requirements
Our aim is always to support employers to achieve constructive, sustainable working relationships that avoid conflict where possible.
Setting Up Staff Councils and Employee Forums
Not all workplaces are unionised – and many employers choose to establish a staff council, employee forum or consultative committee to ensure employee voices are heard in a meaningful way.
We can support employers to:
- Design and establish a staff council or employee representative body
- Draft clear Terms of Reference, Constitution, or Memorandum of Understanding
- Define the scope of the council’s authority and consultation roles
- Ensure compliance with legal obligations around consultation and employee representation
- Train managers and representatives on how to participate effectively
- Embed constructive communication channels and processes
A well-structured staff council can improve engagement, trust, and involvement, while reducing the risk of grievances or disputes arising.
Collective Consultation and Organisational Change
Trade unions and staff councils play a key role in consultation relating to:
- Large-scale redundancies
- Restructures and reorganisations
- TUPE transfers
We support employers to:
- Plan legally compliant and well-structured consultation processes
- Communicate clearly and effectively with representatives
- Manage documentation and meeting schedules
- Reduce disruption, maintain morale and avoid escalation
Handled well, consultation can build cooperation, not conflict.
Industrial Action and Dispute Support
Where relations become strained, we provide strategic guidance on:
- Assessing whether industrial action ballots and notices are lawful
- Responding proportionately and lawfully to strike action
- Maintaining business continuity during disruption
- De-escalating conflict and bringing parties back to negotiation
We aim to help employers navigate difficult periods with clarity, confidence and respect.
Our Approach
We believe strong employee relations are built on:
- Respect
- Transparency
- Communication
- Shared problem-solving
We advocate for a collaborative and proactive approach with employee representatives, as this is often the most effective path to long-term stability and positive workplace culture.
Get in Touch
Whether you are navigating a consultation process, facing an industrial relations issue, or looking to establish a staff council, our specialist employment lawyers are here to help.
Contact us at enquiries@thrivelaw.co.uk to speak with one of our team.
We will support you to build constructive relationships and manage staff representation confidently and lawfully.
FAQs
Trade unions represent the collective interests of their members in negotiations with employers. Their core function is collective bargaining: negotiating pay, hours and working conditions on behalf of members with a recognised employer. Beyond pay, they support members facing disciplinary or grievance processes (the statutory right to be accompanied at formal hearings includes the right to bring a union representative), provide advice, and in some cases organise industrial action.
Not every employer has union members, and not every employer recognises a union. Recognition can happen voluntarily (by agreement) or through the statutory route via the Central Arbitration Committee, which requires the union to demonstrate at least 10% membership in the proposed bargaining unit and likely majority support.
There are specific legal obligations to inform and consult where collective redundancies are proposed (20 or more within 90 days at one establishment), during a TUPE transfer, and where significant changes are being made under any collective agreement. Recognised trade unions also have statutory rights to receive information for collective bargaining purposes.
Where there’s no recognised union, the obligation to consult falls on elected employee representatives. In collective redundancy situations, employers must allow time for elections if no representatives are already in place. Failure to inform and consult can result in a protective award of up to 90 days’ gross pay per affected employee, which is a significant exposure alongside any individual claims.
Start by taking potential disputes seriously before they become formal. Most industrial action begins with a grievance that escalated because it wasn’t addressed early enough. Good employee relations, functioning consultation processes, and genuine engagement with union representatives reduce the risk of disputes reaching that point.
If a ballot is called, there are strict statutory requirements the union must follow, and employers must receive specified notice before action begins. Legal advice at the outset is important: the rules around protected industrial action are complex, and acting unlawfully in response (for example, selectively dismissing strikers) can create severe liability.
A trade union is an independent organisation with statutory rights to be consulted on collective issues, represent members, and (if recognised) bargain collectively. Staff councils or works councils are typically set up by the employer as a consultation vehicle, rather than a bargaining one.
The practical difference is independence. A trade union’s job is to represent its members’ interests, which may not align with the employer’s. A staff council is employer-facilitated and tends to operate more collaboratively, which can be valuable but also limits its ability to push back in the way a union can.
Be consistent, communicate early, and avoid using the formal process as a mechanism to manage what feels like an inconvenience. Trade union relationships go wrong most often when employers consult late, share limited information, or treat the process as a box to tick rather than a genuine dialogue.
Regular, informal contact with union representatives outside the formal consultation process tends to produce better outcomes when formal consultation is needed. Representatives who feel respected and informed are less likely to escalate unnecessarily. That’s not the same as always agreeing with them; it’s about maintaining a relationship that can sustain disagreement without becoming adversarial.
