The Trade Union Act 2016 became law in 2016 but has yet to come into force. One of the Act’s key elements is to require a ballot turnout in a strike ballot of at least 50% of those entitled to vote. There are also higher thresholds for organising strike action for those working in ‘important public services’ like firefighters, and other more detailed changes of the process for organising strikes.
It had been expected that the provisions of the new law would start to come into force in 2016, but this has not yet happened. Worker representation on boards Proposals for employee representation on company boards may be brought forward. At a recent appearance at the CBI, Theresa May appeared to rule out forcing companies to have workers or trade union reps on their boards, or having some sort of compulsory works councils, but how the government proposes to encourage employee representation at board level remains to be seen – watch this space.