Do your leaders know when collective consultation is already too late?
The Challenge
Collective consultation is one of the most misunderstood, and most expensive, obligations in employment law. The Employment Rights Act 2025 has lowered the thresholds that trigger the duty to consult, extended the situations in which it applies, and handed the Fair Work Agency the power to investigate collective consultation failures without waiting for a complaint. Protective awards of up to 90 days’ gross pay per affected employee remain the primary consequence of getting it wrong. for a complaint.
The Solution
BFI’s in-house collective consultation programme gives your HR, ER and operational leaders the knowledge to identify when the duty arises, what it requires at each stage, and how to run a process that is both legally compliant and genuinely credible to employees and representatives. We also cover the ICE Regulations, increasingly invoked in both unionised and non-unionised organisations, and how to build standing consultation arrangements that reduce risk long term.
Course Overview
Why bring this training in-house?
- Compliance: Understand the ERA 2025 changes to collective consultation and ensure your processes meet the new obligations.
- Protection: Avoid protective awards and Fair Work Agency enforcement action by getting process right from the outset.
- Confidence: Give your HR and ER leaders a clear, practical framework they can apply to restructuring, redundancy and change programmes.
- Capability: Build internal expertise in running consultation processes that employees and representatives take seriously.
Learning objectives:
Collective consultation is rarely generic, the right approach depends on whether your organisation is unionised, the scale and nature of the change, and your existing ER relationships. This programme is tailored to your context: whether you are preparing for an imminent consultation programme, building capability ahead of future change, or working through the implications of the ICE Regulations for the first time.
In-house delivery gives your organisation:
- Scenarios and case studies drawn from your sector and your most likely consultation situations
- Content adapted to reflect whether you are unionised, the scale of your workforce, and any existing ICE arrangements
- The space to work through real or anticipated consultation challenges confidentially
- A consistent, organisation-wide understanding of what collective consultation requires, and what it doesn’t
Key training topics:
The programme is structured across five modules, adapted to reflect your organisation’s structure, union relationships and most likely consultation scenarios.
Module 1 The Legal Framework, Collective Consultation Obligations, the ERA 2025 Changes, and the ICE Regulations
Module 2 Triggers, Timescales and the Duty to Consult, When the Obligation Arises and What It Requires
Module 3 Running Effective Consultation, Representatives, Meetings, Documentation and Communication
Module 4 Protective Awards, Enforcement and the Fair Work Agency, Consequences and How to Avoid Them
Module 5 Building Sustainable Consultation Arrangements, ICE Agreements, Standing Forums, and Long-Term Engagement
By the end of this training your team will be able to:
- Identify when the duty to collectively consult is triggered, and act early enough to meet the obligation
- Explain the ERA 2025 changes to collective consultation and their immediate practical implications
- Respond appropriately to an employee request for an ICE arrangement
- Design and run a consultation process that is legally compliant and credible to employees and their representatives
- Manage the interface between collective consultation obligations and trade union negotiations
- Avoid the process failures most commonly associated with protective awards and enforcement action
- Put in place standing consultation arrangements that reduce the risk of future disputes
Who will benefit from attendance:
This programme is essential for everyone involved in workforce change, from the HR professionals who design consultation processes to the operational leaders who run them.
This course is designed for:
- HR directors and heads of HR, who need a thorough, up-to-date understanding of collective consultation obligations and how the ERA 2025 changes the landscape.
- HR business partners and ER specialists, who design and manage consultation processes and want confidence that their approach meets the new legal requirements.
- Operational and divisional leaders, who lead restructuring or change programmes and feel uncertain about what the consultation duty actually requires of them personally.
- In-house legal counsel, who advise on employment matters and want a practical, up-to-date grounding in how collective consultation and the ICE Regulations interact.
- Trade union and employee relations managers, who manage the relationship with recognised trade unions and need to understand how the ERA 2025 changes affect the consultation framework.
- Company secretaries and governance professionals, in organisations where ICE arrangements or works councils are either in place or being considered.
This course is particularly valuable ahead of a planned restructuring or redundancy programme, or for organisations where collective consultation has historically been managed reactively and there is appetite to build standing capability.
Contact Details
Catherine Ouston,
Head of In-House Training
📥 teamtraining@bfi.co.uk
📞 +44(0)1983 861133
