Following a long parliamentary debate and the culmination of a long struggle by trade unions and campaigners, the Employment Rights Bill has now cleared its final hurdle and will shortly receive Royal Assent.

This legislation represents an important step forward for working people across the UK.

While it does not undo all the damage caused by decades of hostile employment legislation, it will remove some of the most vicious anti-worker and anti-union laws that have restricted rights at work and undermined the collective organisation of working people.

The Bill will improve the rights of individual workers, including teachers, strengthening protections and helping to provide greater security at work.

For teachers, these changes are particularly significant at a time when recruitment, retention and workload pressures continue to place unacceptable strain on the profession.

Crucially, the new legal framework will also create greater opportunities for trade unions to campaign, organise and win improvements for their members.

Stronger rights on paper must now be translated into real change in workplaces and unions will play a vital role in ensuring that happens.

In NASUWT, we need to rise to meet this challenge: teachers need trade union rights.

NASUWT will continue to engage closely with the next stages of implementation, including the development of secondary legislation and guidance, to ensure the new rights are robust, enforceable and deliver meaningful improvements for teachers.

This forms part of the Union’s wider campaign for a New Deal for Teachers and for a profession that is respected, properly supported and sustainable for the long term.

We will need to discuss what further improvements are needed to workers’ rights while we ensure we take full advantage of the new legislation to build our union.