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What is the industrial relations and strikes beat?
This beat covers trade unions and the disputes they run: pay claims, recognition fights, restructuring and redundancy rows, ballots, strikes and action short of a strike, picket lines, injunctions, and the settlements that end most of it. It sits across other beats rather than beside them — a rail strike is a transport story, a consultants’ dispute is a health story, a bin strike is a local government story — which is why so many newsrooms cover disputes without anyone owning the underlying law. Both sides brief hard, and much of the contested ground is technical: whether a ballot met the statutory threshold, whether the dispute falls within the statutory definition, whether notice was properly given, whether the mandate has expired. All of that is checkable against the text of the legislation, and checking it is what separates a reporter from a conduit for two press releases.
One structural warning before anything else: the law changed substantially in 2025 and 2026, and it is still changing. The Employment Rights Act 2025 repealed the minimum service levels regime, removed the 40% support threshold for important public services, lengthened strike mandates, shortened the notice period and abolished the picket supervisor duty — while leaving the 50% turnout threshold standing for now. Anything you remember from the 2022–24 strike wave needs re-checking against the current text before it goes in a story.
Why this beat matters
- 1Disputes are one of the few places where the division of income between employers and workers is negotiated in public, with documents, votes and deadlines a reporter can actually see.
- 2The legal framework is unusually prescriptive, so claims that a strike is "unlawful" or a ballot "invalid" can be tested against statute rather than left standing as a quote.
- 3Strike coverage reaches readers as service journalism — which trains run, whether a school opens — and getting that operational detail right builds trust for the harder accountability work.
- 4Recognition and derecognition cases before the Central Arbitration Committee, and Certification Officer decisions, are public records that almost nobody reports.
- 5The statutory reset of 2025-26 means a large stock of published explainers, including some still live on major news sites, now describes a regime that no longer exists.
What changed in 2025–26
Each change below is recorded in the textual amendment notes on legislation.gov.uk; the dates are the dates the change took effect. Several carry transitional provisions and savings in the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 1 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/3, so a dispute that began earlier may still be governed by the old rule.
Minimum service levels: repealed (18 December 2025)
The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 was repealed by the Employment Rights Act 2025, ss. 78(3) and 159(1)(c). Work notices and sector minimum service regulations no longer exist; legislation.gov.uk now titles the Act "(repealed)".
40% support threshold: gone (18 February 2026)
The important public services threshold in s. 226(2A)-(2F) of the 1992 Act was omitted by s. 69(2)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 2025, and s. 3 of the Trade Union Act 2016 was omitted by s. 69(4), both on 18 February 2026.
50% turnout threshold: still in force
Section 226(2)(a)(iia) survives. Section 68 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 would remove it but has not been commenced, and s. 159(5)-(6) requires the Secretary of State to weigh the turnout effect of non-postal balloting and lay a statement before Parliament first.
Mandate length: six months to twelve (18 February 2026)
Section 234(1) now gives a ballot 12 months of effect from the date of the ballot, substituted by s. 72 of the Employment Rights Act 2025, with savings in S.I. 2026/3.
Notice of action: fourteen days to ten (18 February 2026)
Section 234A(4)(b) was substituted by s. 74(1)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 2025, so the relevant period now ends with the tenth day before the first day of action.
Ballot paper detail and picket supervisors: removed (18 February 2026)
Section 229(2B)-(2D), requiring a summary of the matters in issue and the type and timing of action on the ballot paper, was omitted by s. 71(1); s. 220A, the picket supervisor duty, was omitted by s. 75(1)(b). A revised Code of Practice on Picketing followed on 5 March 2026.
Protected industrial action: time limit removed (18 February 2026)
Section 238A still makes dismissal for taking protected industrial action automatically unfair, but subsections (3)-(7D) — the machinery that confined that protection to a defined protected period — were omitted by s. 77(3)(b), commenced by S.I. 2026/3.
Recognition ballots: 40% test removed (6 April 2026)
Schedule A1 paragraph 29(3) now requires the CAC to declare recognition where the union is supported by a majority of the workers voting; the former requirement for at least 40% of the bargaining unit went with the substitution made by Schedule 6 paragraph 19(3).
How members vote: postal, electronic or hybrid
Section 230(2) required voting papers to be sent by post. The Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026, S.I. 2026/881, made on 28 July 2026, introduces postal, electronic and hybrid voting; its Part 2 comes into force on the twenty-eighth day after the Order was made. Establish which regime applied to the ballot you are writing about.
What makes industrial action lawful
There is no positive right to strike in UK law. What exists is an immunity: section 219 of the 1992 Act protects acts done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute from certain tort liabilities, principally inducing a breach of contract. Section 219(4) makes that protection subject to sections 222 to 225 (action excluded from protection, including secondary action under section 224), section 226 (the ballot requirement) and section 234A (notice to the employer). Lose the immunity and the union is exposed to an injunction and to a damages claim.
A trade dispute within section 244
A dispute between workers and their employer relating wholly or mainly to terms and conditions, engagement or termination, allocation of work, discipline, union membership, facilities for officials, or negotiating machinery. "Wholly or mainly" is where challenges start.
Notice of the ballot to the employer
Section 226A(1): the employer must receive notice of the ballot not later than the seventh day before its opening day, and a sample voting paper not later than the third day before it.
A ballot meeting sections 227 to 231
Entitlement to vote, separate workplace ballots where applicable, the content of the voting paper — which must still carry the statutory warning about breach of contract — the conduct of the ballot, and the information given to members about the result.
The turnout and majority tests
Section 226(2)(a): at least 50% of those entitled to vote must do so, and a majority of those voting must answer "Yes" to the applicable question in section 229(2).
Notice of the action itself
Section 234A: a written notice giving categories and workplaces, numbers and how they were arrived at, and whether action is continuous or discontinuous — ending with the tenth day before the first day of action. Names are not required.
Action called within the mandate
Section 234: the ballot supports action for 12 months from the date of the ballot, subject to any court order extending that period where an injunction prevented the union from calling action.
How to read a ballot result
Under section 231 the union must inform those entitled to vote of the result, and under section 231A the employer must be told too — so both sides usually hold the same figures. Ask for the scrutineer’s numbers rather than the press release.
- Get four numbers, not two: the number entitled to vote, the number of votes cast, the Yes vote and the No vote — plus spoiled papers. "98% voted Yes" is meaningless without the turnout.
- Compute the turnout yourself from votes cast over those entitled to vote, and check it clears 50%. A union announcing a mandate is asserting that it does; you can verify the arithmetic.
- Check the question. Section 229(2) allows separate questions on strike action and on action short of a strike — a mandate for one is not a mandate for the other.
- Ask whether the ballot was aggregated or run as separate workplace ballots, because a national Yes can sit on top of individual sites that failed the threshold.
- Establish the date of the ballot, not the date of the announcement: the 12-month mandate under section 234 runs from the ballot.
- Ask which balloting method was used, since the permissible means of voting are changing and that bears on both turnout comparisons and any legal challenge.
- Never describe a result as "binding". A mandate permits a union to call action lawfully; it does not oblige it to, and unions routinely hold mandates in reserve during negotiations.
Official, unofficial and protected action
Three labels, three legal meanings, and they are not interchangeable. Official action is authorised or endorsed by the union. Unofficialaction, under section 237(2), is action that has not been so authorised or endorsed — though action in which none of those taking part are union members is not unofficial. Sections 20 and 21 govern what counts as authorisation and how a union repudiates action taken in its name; a repudiation notice can turn official action unofficial, which is why those notices are worth chasing.
Protectedis narrower again: section 238A treats a dismissal as unfair where the reason is that the employee took protected industrial action — action the employee was induced to take by an act protected from tort liability under section 219. Since 18 February 2026 the subsections that limited that protection to a defined protected period have been omitted, so any explainer describing a twelve-week window is now out of date.
At the other end, section 237(1) removes the right to complain of unfair dismissal from an employee dismissed while taking part in unofficial action, subject to the exceptions in section 237(1A). If you are writing that strikers “could be sacked”, say which category you are describing and on what basis, and put the question to both the union and the employer before publication.
Injunctions, picket lines and reporting both sides
Employers rarely sue unions for damages; they apply for an injunction, usually within days of a notice of action, and usually on an alleged defect in the ballot or the notice rather than on the merits of the dispute. Section 221(1) prevents a court granting an injunction in the respondent’s absence, where the respondent claims to have acted in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, unless satisfied that all reasonable steps have been taken to give notice of the application and an opportunity to be heard. Section 221(2) requires a court considering an interlocutory injunction to have regard to the likelihood of the party succeeding at trial in establishing a defence under section 219 or section 220 — a provision that does not extend to Scotland.
On the line itself, section 220 makes it lawful for a person, in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, to attend at or near their own place of work — or, for a union official, at or near the workplace of a member they are accompanying and representing — for the purpose only of peacefully obtaining or communicating information, or peacefully persuading any person to work or abstain from working. Section 219(3) makes clear that picketing outside those limits does not attract the section 219 protection. The picket supervisor duty in section 220A was omitted on 18 February 2026, and the Department for Business and Trade’s Code of Practice on Picketing was updated on 5 March 2026 to reflect the Employment Rights Act 2025, superseding the 2024 code. Ordinary criminal and public order law still applies on the line and is the right frame for reporting incidents there.
- Report an interim injunction as what it is — a temporary order made on the likelihood of success and the balance of convenience, not a ruling that the strike was unlawful — and always report the outcome, including a withdrawal or settlement.
- Ask what the alleged defect was: a miscounted bargaining unit, a defective notice, an expired mandate. That detail is usually the story.
- Put each side's figures to the other before publication. If you ask the union to justify the disruption, ask the employer to justify the offer, and publish the assumptions behind both cost claims.
- Attribute contested characterisations rather than adopting them: "the company says the ballot was invalid" is reportable, "the ballot was invalid" is a finding you have not got.
Key data sources for industrial relations reporters
Read the Labour Disputes Inquiry quality and methodology note before quoting any strike figure: the inquiry excludes disputes involving fewer than 10 workers or lasting less than half a day, unless 100 working days are lost in a single dispute, and it counts working days lost rather than disputes.
FOI ideas for dispute reporting
Trade unions are not public authorities and are not subject to FOI. Public sector employers are — so in a public sector dispute the employer’s paperwork is obtainable while the union’s is not. Correct for that asymmetry in your framing rather than exploit it.
- Spending on agency or contingency staff during the dispute, by month, with supplier names (public sector employer)
- Board or cabinet papers and risk assessments weighing the cost of the pay claim against the cost of the dispute (NHS trust, council, university)
- Legal costs incurred in relation to industrial action, including any injunction application, for the current financial year (public sector employer)
- Correspondence with the sponsoring department or arm's-length body about the negotiating mandate (public sector employer)
- Minutes of the joint negotiating committee or equivalent recognised bargaining forum for the past 12 months (public sector employer)
- Service continuity or resilience plans prepared for named strike dates, redacted as necessary (public sector employer)
Key UK organisations and contacts
Interview question bank
For Union officials
- What were the four ballot numbers — entitled to vote, votes cast, Yes and No — and can we see the scrutineer's report?
- What exactly is the dispute about, in the terms of the statutory trade dispute definition, and when does the mandate expire?
- What would you settle for today, and what has the employer put on the table that you have rejected?
- Has the employer challenged the ballot or the notice, and on what ground?
For Employers
- What is the full cost of the offer you have made, on what assumptions, and over what period?
- What is the dispute costing in lost output, cover and legal fees?
- Have you sought or considered an injunction, and if so on what alleged defect?
- What contingency arrangements are in place, and who is being asked to cover struck work?
For Workers on the line (with consent)
- What changed in the job that brought you to this point?
- What does a strike day cost you personally, and how are you covering it?
- What would have to change for you to go back tomorrow?
For Acas and independent experts
- What normally unlocks a dispute at this stage, and what is unusual about this one?
- Which of the two sides' cost figures is the more conventional way of measuring it?
- What does the recent statutory change mean in practice for a dispute like this one?
Jargon glossary
Where reporters go wrong
- Quoting the Yes percentage without the turnout — the two numbers together are the story, and one without the other is advocacy.
- Recycling a pre-2026 explainer: minimum service levels, work notices, the 40% important public services threshold, the six-month mandate, the fourteen-day notice and the picket supervisor have all gone.
- Calling action "illegal" when what is meant is that it may fall outside the statutory immunity and so be actionable in tort. Say what you mean.
- Treating an interim injunction as a verdict on the merits, or reporting the application and never the outcome.
- Publishing one side's cost figure — the employer's cost of the claim, or the union's real-terms pay comparison — without the assumptions behind it or the other side's response.
- Assuming UK-wide reach: the 1992 Act framework applies in Great Britain, and Northern Ireland has its own arrangements and its own conciliation body.
- Naming individual strikers or people on a picket line without weighing their exposure to their employer, and to online abuse, after the dispute ends.
- Describing a dispute as "about pay" when the union's formal dispute covers safety, staffing or terms — the framing matters legally as well as editorially.
Story ideas and angles
- Audit local ballot results over a year: which mandates cleared the 50% turnout test, which failed, and what that says about union organisation in your area.
- Track CAC recognition applications in your region since the 40% bargaining unit test was removed in April 2026 and test whether outcomes have shifted.
- Use the ONS labour disputes series to place the current dispute in a long run — explaining the counting rules rather than reaching for a record claim.
- FOI a public sector employer's spend on cover and legal costs during a dispute and set it against the cost of the pay claim it refused.
- Follow one dispute end to end: ballot, notice, talks at Acas, action, settlement. The documentary trail is unusually complete and rarely reported as a sequence.
- Report Certification Officer decisions involving unions active in your patch; internal ballot and election complaints are public and almost never covered.
- Examine how the move to electronic and hybrid balloting affects turnout in the first ballots run under the new permissible means of voting.
- Look at who is not covered: workplaces with no recognised union, where a dispute has no ballot, no notice and no press office at all.