CPD accredited training course - 8 points
Navigate the new industrial relations landscape with confidence
The Employment Rights Act 2025 is now officially law, bringing the most significant overhaul of trade union rights in decades. With sweeping changes to strike mandates, statutory sick pay, and the union recognition process already taking effect this April, the landscape of British industrial relations is undergoing a fundamental shift. Recognition thresholds are dropping to as low as 2%, unions have gained formal workplace access rights, and ballot requirements are being relaxed. Trade unions are professionalising fast – investing in forensic accounting, media strategy, and advanced negotiation tactics.
This intensive one-day roadshow will equip senior HR professionals, and employee and industrial relations specialists, with practical frameworks to handle today's union environment.
What you'll take away:
- Understand the new legal obligations.
- Recognise and counter sophisticated pressure tactics.
- Practice high-stakes negotiation scenarios in a safe environment.
- Proven frameworks for hostile negotiations.
- How to maintain professional relationships whilst protecting your organisation's interests.
- Confidential peer insights under Chatham House Rule.
Why attend now: One poorly handled recognition process or negotiation could cost your organisation significantly more than this training – in direct costs, productivity loss, and reputational damage. With implementation beginning throughout 2026, organisations that prepare now will have a decisive advantage.
- Current political and economic drivers of union militancy, including the shift from partnership to conflict-based strategy
- National trends in trade union membership and density, and what's driving them sector by sector
- Employment Rights Bill impact: recognition thresholds, workplace access, strike procedures
- Why traditional collaborative approaches no longer work in this landscape
- Intelligence briefing: how unions structure, resource and target recognition campaigns
- Why line managers, not HR, are the real early warning system for union activity
- The practical signals worth briefing every line manager on
- Building a simple escalation path from shop floor to HR
- What not to do: keeping line managers out of national or regional-level negotiation
- Group exercise: drafting a one-page line manager briefing note to take away
- The recognition spectrum: statutory vs voluntary recognition, and what each actually secures
- Communications, consultation and negotiation: the practical distinctions, and where each obligation sits within an existing bargaining agreement
- Where it typically breaks down: why unions, as often as employers, lose track of where they are in the process
- The escalation path: how a breakdown moves towards industrial action, and the rules that govern it
- Rules of engagement in practice: working through the options open to delegates within their own agreements
12:15 Lunch & Networking
Facilitated peer discussion under Chatham House Rule
13:15 Negotiation Strategies for Tough Talks
- Preparation essentials: pre-negotiation intelligence, BATNA and walk-away points
- Interests versus positions: using the iceberg model to get beneath the headline demand
- Mandates and authority: setting clear escalation points without disclosing your ceiling
- Anchoring, concessions and counter-proposals: why early concessions backfire
- Staying professionally detached under personal pressure: naming the tactic rather than absorbing it
- How a 2017 comparator pay decision, quietly disguised rather than resolved, created a £760 million equal pay liability
- The full escalation ladder: work-to-rule, rolling strikes, continuous action, and the shift to leverage tactics including the inflatable rat
- Running services through agency staff and mutual aid without breaching the law on covering industrial action
- Injunctions, contempt of court, and the ‘persons unknown’ problem when protest tactics evolve faster than the law
- What the council would do differently with the benefit of hindsight
- Scenario: union demands a 15% pay rise with an immediate strike threat during peak season
- Aggressive opening tactics, personal criticism, and artificial deadline pressure
- Applying the interests-versus-positions and anchoring concepts from earlier in the day, under live pressure
- Financial data challenges and precedent-creation attempts
- Professional boundary maintenance and structured negotiation process under pressure
Pre-course reading on the scenario circulated to delegates ahead of the day
Facilitated under Chatham House Rule:
- Confidential sharing of specific organisational challenges and current negotiations
- Individual action planning, including the line manager briefing note from this morning
- Post-training resources and ongoing support
- Success metrics and evaluation criteria
This training is ideal for HR Directors, Senior HR Managers, Employee Relations Specialists, and Industrial Relations Specialists.
• Master the legal framework governing union negotiations in the post-Employment Rights Bill environment
• Recognise and counter sophisticated union tactics while maintaining professional standards
• Develop robust negotiation strategies for pay, TUPE, terms & conditions, and recognition disputes
• Build emotional resilience for high-pressure negotiation scenarios
What does BFI specialise in?
BFI provides expert-led training in HR compliance, employment law, immigration for employers, union relations, workplace inclusion, and AI and talent solutions.
Who typically attends your courses?
Attendees include HR managers, legal teams, compliance officers, operations leaders, and public sector employers.
Are your trainers practitioners?
Yes. All trainers are experienced specialists; we feature practitioners from the public and private sectors as well as lawyers, policy advisers, former regulators, and consultants.
How do I book a course?
Choose an event on the website and click Register. You can pay online with a credit card or request an invoice.
Do you accept purchase orders?
Yes. Public and private-sector organisations may use PO numbers. These can be added during the registration process, or can be retrospectively added to am invoice if the place has been booked already.
We need to set you up as a Supplier, can you complete a form or send me over your company information?
Yes, we can do either; please contact us via info@bfi.co.uk
Can I get a PO number added to our invoice?
Yes, please send details through to info@bfi.co.uk or reply to us using your confirmation email
Do you offer group discounts?
Yes. Discounts for multiple bookings are automatically applied at checkout. For groups of over ten, it may be more cost-effective to run the course in-house. Call 01983 861133 for details
Can I transfer my place to another date or colleague?
Yes. Substitutions are free, and transfers are typically allowed within a set timeframe.
What is your cancellation policy?
BFI follows standard UK training-industry cancellation terms.
How are online courses delivered?
Training is delivered live via Zoom with interactive Q\&A and case-based discussion.
Will I receive slides and supporting materials?
Yes. Attendees receive slides, templates (where relevant), and many other useful documents and links.
Will I receive a copy of the event recording?
Our monthly subscription and webinar clients receive recordings of the live sessions; otherwise we do not record our courses to encourage confidential discussion and questions under the Chatham House Rule
What time zone are online events delivered in?
All events are delivered in UTC / London time unless otherwise stated
What is included in in-person events?
Full-day training includes refreshments, full documentation which is emailed prior to the event and networking opportunities.
Are your venues accessible?
Yes. All venues are fully accessible.
Is your training CPD certified?
All our courses are either CPD accredited or CPD eligible, so every certificate of attendance can count towards your CPD requirements. Look out for the CPD badge on each course page to see which applies.
Can I ask questions about my organisation’s situation?
Yes. Trainers answer questions during the session and can respond afterward.
Will the training help us prepare for an audit?
Yes, on our audit courses you will learn what triggers visits, what officers look for, and how to evidence compliance.
Will I receive a certificate?
Yes. All attendees receive a digital certificate of course completion.
Do you offer private or in-house training?
Yes. All courses can be tailored for your team. Visit https://bfi.co.uk/team-training/
Can I ask questions about my organisation's situation?
Yes. Our trainers answer questions live during sessions and can follow up briefly afterwards, but we don't offer ongoing case-by-case advice by email. If you need dedicated support on a specific situation, we offer paid consultancy - contact us to find out more.
Do you offer consultancy?
Yes. BFI offers policy reviews, audit preparation, HR compliance support, and workforce advisory services.