New Trade Union Workplace Access Rights: What Employers Need to Know

New Trade Union Workplace Access Rights: What Employers Need to Know

From 30 October 2026, new trade union access rights come into force across England, Scotland and Wales under the Employment Rights Act 2025.

The changes give trade unions a new statutory route to request access to workplaces and workers.

Importantly, this does not mean a trade union simply has an unrestricted right to turn up at your workplace. There is a process to follow.

What are the new rights?

Access agreements can allow trade union officials to physically enter a workplace, communicate with workers digitally, or both.

This can be for purposes including meeting, supporting, representing, recruiting or organising workers and facilitating collective bargaining.

What types of access agreement could there be?

There are broadly three ways access arrangements could arise:

1. A voluntary access agreement

An employer and trade union can agree arrangements voluntarily without needing to use the statutory process. The new legislation does not prevent existing voluntary arrangements continuing.

2. An agreed statutory access agreement

A trade union can make a formal statutory request for access. If the employer agrees to the request, the parties then have an opportunity to negotiate and agree the practical terms of that access.

3. A CAC determined statutory access agreement

If the employer and union cannot reach agreement, either party can apply to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) which can determine whether access should be granted and, if so, on what terms.

How does the statutory process work?

Once a valid statutory request is received, the timescales move fairly quickly.

An employer will normally have 15 working days to respond.

If the request proceeds, there is then a 25 working day negotiation period during which the employer and trade union should try to agree the terms of access.

If agreement cannot be reached, the matter can be referred to the CAC.

What can the CAC decide?

The CAC can determine whether a trade union should be given access and the terms under which that access should take place.

There are limited circumstances where the CAC may refuse an application, including where the employer has fewer than 21 workers or where particular national security or criminal justice considerations apply.

There are also circumstances where refusal may be reasonable, including certain situations involving existing union arrangements, multiple access requests or genuine health and safety concerns.

However, employers should not assume that simply objecting to trade union access will prevent access. The overall framework is designed around enabling reasonable access, not preventing it.

Where access is granted, the CAC can determine practical terms covering matters such as:

• whether access is physical, digital or both
• how frequently access takes place
• notice arrangements
• facilities available to trade union representatives
• how and when representatives can communicate with workers
• reasonable requirements the union must follow while accessing the workplace

The CAC is also responsible for overseeing and enforcing statutory access agreements.

What should employers be doing now?

Our advice is simple: have a plan before you receive a request.

Consider:

• Who within the organisation would manage an access request?
• What would reasonable access look like within your workplace?
• What would you be prepared to agree voluntarily?
• Are managers clear on what they should and should not do if approached by a trade union?
• What existing employee relations issues could make your workforce more likely to attract trade union interest?
• How comfortable is the organisation with trade union engagement and potentially collective bargaining in the future?

With relatively short statutory timescales, receiving a request is not the ideal point to start working all of this out. We have another Blog written about this topic from April 2026 which may provide you with further information: New Trade Union Workplace Access Proposals in the UK , and a webinar recording in which we had a TU Rep join us as a guest: Working with Trade Unions - Webinar Recording

We have significant experience working with employers on trade union engagement, consultation, collective bargaining and wider industrial relations. If you would like to discuss what these changes could mean for your organisation, or want to get prepared before a request arrives, just get in touch.