Acas Chair Baroness Jones's speech on workplace relations

Transcript of Acas Chair Baroness Jones's contribution to the Loyal Debate on the King's Speech.

Location: House of Lords, London

Delivered on: 20 May 2026 

My Lords, I am pleased to speak in this debate on the Gracious Speech – and to welcome the focus on public sector reform and delivery. 

This is also my first intervention since I was appointed Chair of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

As Your Lordships know, Acas is independent of government and provides impartial advice and support to both employers and workers.

I am acutely conscious in my new role of the need for me to maintain and protect Acas's independence and impartiality.

With that in mind, I will not be voting on any measures related to employment law, labour regulation or any areas in which my doing so might be misconstrued as impacting on Acas impartiality.

I also refer the House to my declaration in the Register of Interests.

My Lords, the Gracious Speech set out the government's plans for further reform of critical public services.

The public sector improvements proposed are far-reaching and impactful. But I would argue they are only deliverable with a strong industrial relations framework, which rejects the outdated models of perpetual conflict and finds a new consensus.

In 2025, the UK lost 740,000 days to industrial action. While this is significantly lower than the post-Covid bump of over 2.5 million per year, it's much higher than 10 years ago.

And as we know, all this conflict costs British employers at least £28.5 billion per year.

But my Lords, all the evidence shows that the most sustainable business improvements are made when workers and their bosses make changes together.

This has been the experience of huge numbers of employers and unions who have built robust, modern systems of dialogue and partnership – our challenge now is to bring everyone else up to these standards.

For example, the creation of Great British Railways is a real opportunity to reset industrial relations in the transport sector.

Good workforce relations are going to be key to its success.

I welcome the announcement of a Long-Term Rail Network Strategy. But I hope my noble friend the minister recognises that the workforce needs to be part of that strategy from the start, underpinned by a framework for strong collective relations.

I know we all recognise the risk to our national infrastructure when workplace relations go wrong.

My Lords, this is not just a problem in collective disputes.

Research commissioned by Acas tells us that around 44% of people who work in the transport and storage sectors experienced individual workplace conflict in the past year.

That carries a real cost to business through absenteeism, presenteeism, low retention and disengagement from staff.

So, does the minister recognise that there are huge financial and operational advantages in creating a modern industrial relations framework in the transport sector, which can prevent conflicts developing in the first place?

My Lords, good workplace relations are equally critical to the success of the health and social care sectors. In fact, in this sector, employers' research shows there is a clear link between positive workplace relations and patient outcomes.

There is more we can do to improve industrial relations across the NHS, and the new Adult Social Care Negotiating Body is a positive first step.

This is bringing employers and unions together to tackle pay, conditions and retention. I am pleased to report that Acas is supporting this work and the wider reforms.

But the fact remains – there is a higher incidence of conflict in health and social work sectors (47% compared to 44% overall); a higher prevalence of discrimination claims; and individual disputes are more likely to end up being decided in an employment tribunal.

My Lords, the lessons from these examples are that our nation depends upon workplaces in both the public and private sectors being efficient, responsive and innovative – with positive relationships between workers, leaders and their trade unions.

However, we have seen a marked decline in the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to underpin relationships at work and manage conflict early.

So, I would like to propose a simple reframe of good industrial relations based on 3 principles:

• collaboration and partnership – treating each other with mutual respect, as negotiating partners rather than adversaries
• balancing interests – to deliver the prize of economic growth, improved productivity and better working lives
• proportionality – where formal action is used only as a last resort to mitigate the harm it aims to rectify

So, I hope that my noble friend, the minister, recognises the prize that can come from reshaping industrial relations for the new challenges we face in both the public and private sector – which can ultimately build an economy which is stronger because it works for all.