Employment Rights Act 2025: Right to access in the workplace and duty to inform employees of their trade union rights

These include changes to the way trade unions operate as well as strikes, industrial action and picketing.

Two changes in particular will have a direct impact on most employers from 30 October 2026:

1. Trade unions will have new rights to access an employer’s workforce and workplace.
2. Employers will be under a new duty inform employees of their trade union rights.

This new right and new duty will significantly change how trade unions can operate and how employers can respond.  It is therefore important for employers to understand what is expected of them and begin preparing before these changes take effect.

Where are we now?

Currently, trade unions do not have a general, freestanding right to enter a workplace or have access to a workforce.  If there are individual members of a trade union already in the workplace then it is possible for the trade union to organise through them, or to agree with the employer on what steps they can do.

The information which an employer is obliged to provide to an employee when they start is set out in the written statement required by Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.  There is no obligation to provide any information on trade union issues.

What is changing?

Right to Access

There will be a new right to access for trade unions from 30 October 2026.  The aim is for trade unions and employers to work together and reach an amicable agreement on what the union can do to communicate with the workforce.  Access will either be in person at the workplace or by communication.  This new right is intended for trade unions that are not already recognised by the employer.  Employers with fewer than 21 workers will be excluded.  A new Code of Practice will deal with these rights.

The trade union can approach the employer to request an ‘access agreement’.  This will be for a number of purposes related to recruiting and organising in that workplace including collective bargaining but specifically not for the purpose of organising industrial action.  The employer must provide a ‘response notice’ within the ‘response period’ of 15 working days after the request was received, although an extension may be agreed.  A prescribed form for the initial request and response notice are provided in the new Code.

If the employer responds, the parties then enter into a ‘negotiation period’ of 25 working days with the aim of producing a written agreement on how and in what way the trade union can have access to the workforce.  This process could end in one of a number of ways:

• The parties reach agreement, in which case the access agreement is lodged with the CAC (Central Arbitration Committee).
• If agreement has not been reached, either party can ask the CAC to determine what the access arrangements should be (within 55 working days of the original request).
• If the employer did not respond, the trade union can again ask the CAC to decide what the arrangements should be. These are more likely to be agreed if the trade union asked for the model terms set out in the Code.

In practice, this means that employers will have to consider the best way to allow access if possible.  Access would not be permitted in a way that would unreasonably interfere with the employer’s business but an employer has to take reasonable steps to allow access for trade union officials.  What works will depend on the workplace, the number of employees and their days or hours of work.  Emails or notices on an intranet page may be the easiest method to reach the largest number of people.  Employers will have to consider if physical access should be allowed and it won’t be possible to refuse physical access just because other forms of communication are possible.  The trade union will have to provide a minimum of 2 working days’ notice of an upcoming access visit (whether physical or digital), and the trade union official seeking access must comply with all reasonable instructions given by the employer.

Whatever options are chosen, it will be important to get this right.  The CAC will have the power to issue fines of up to £75,000 for an initial complaint, £150,000 for the second complaint, and up to £500,000 for the third or subsequent breaches.  The level of the fine will depend on a number of factors including the seriousness, reason for and duration of the breach, the number of workers affected, the size and resources of the employer, and any earlier history of breaches, so fines at the highest level are likely to be exceptional.

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Take Me There

Written statement of Trade Union Rights

There will be a new duty on employers to provide a written statement to workers informing them of their right to join a trade union (and other trade union rights) from 30 October 2026.  This information will have to be provided at the start date of their employment at the same time as the Section 1 written statement of employment particulars, as well as at other ‘prescribed times’ (which is highly likely to be a new deadline or milestone to cover existing employees).

The government has said that detailed guidance on the scheme will be published this month. The wording required is thought to be in a prescribed form.  The information is still subject to finalisation but what will be required is likely to include which trade unions are already present in the workplace, possibly with details of other unions who may not be but who operate in the sector, as well as details of their local or regional offices.  The Section 1 statement already has to include details of any collective agreement covering the employment relationship so more details on collective bargaining could also be included.  The enforcement of this new clause will also be dealt with in the same way as the failure to provide a Section 1 statement, or the information required by it which has potential compensation of two or four weeks’ pay. However, an existing successful Employment Tribunal claim would be required to be eligible for this compensation.

What should employers do now?

• Consider how access could be arranged in your workplace (for example, a meeting space, staff room or hall, or a generic email address or intranet page).
• Decide who will respond to requests, negotiate with the union and what arrangements you would be willing to consider. Ignoring requests could turn a manageable workplace arrangement into a CAC dispute.
• Keep an audit trial of correspondence with the union and any decision making. You may want to have a centralised process within the business for this to ensure requests reach the correct decision makers within required timeframes.
• Keep a placeholder within contracts ready for the new prescribed wording. Existing contracts of employment will also have to be updated.

Employment Rights Act check-up