The Union is knocking on the door: What new trade union access rights mean for employers

As an employer, you already have enough to deal with. For many employers, trade union involvement is not something they want to spend valuable management time dealing with, particularly where there is currently no trade union presence in the business.

Yet from 30 October 2026, new statutory trade union access rights are expected to come into force. The new statutory rights will award trade unions greater ability to enter workplaces and communicate with workers. For businesses already managing competing demands on time and resources, the question is what these changes will actually mean in practice? The right to enter applies to employers of all sizes, all business types regardless of fair practice.

What is the current law?

At present, trade unions do not generally have an automatic right to enter an employer’s workplace simply to recruit or organise workers. Existing rights tend to arise in more specific circumstances, such as where a union is recognised or representatives have particular statutory rights.

In practical terms, this means employers have generally retained a significant degree of control over who enters their premises and how workplace communications are managed.

What is changing?

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a new statutory access regime. Once in force, an independent trade union will be able to make a formal request for access to a workplace. Access can be physical, digital or both, and may be used for activities including communicating with workers, recruiting and organising them, providing support and representation, and facilitating collective bargaining. Employers will generally be required to respond to an access request within 15 working days, with the initial access visit expect to require at least 5 working days’ notice and subsequent visits at least 2 working days’ notice.

If the employer and union cannot agree arrangements, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) will have powers to determine whether access takes place. Their decision will depend on a number of factors, but there will a presumption towards access taking place.

The important point for employers is that this is no longer a simple a matter of deciding whether you want a union representative on your premises. When statutory requirements are met, employers will have to comply with the access request, whether they want this or not.

Who does this affect?

The new regime is principally aimed at employers with 21 or more workers. Employers with fewer than 21 workers will generally fall outside the statutory access regime, although such employers should not automatically assume that they fall outside of the rules.

For example, where an employer is associated with one or more employers, the workers employed across those associated employers may be taken into account when determining whether the threshold is met. This means that a business with a small workforce could still fall within the regime if they are part of a wider corporate structure.

The changes are therefore particularly relevant to medium-sized and larger businesses and groups of companies. The new access rights will also not be restricted to employers that already recognise a union.

Net effect

1.  Time and resources diverted from the business

For many employers, this may be the biggest practical concern.

Catherine Gannon, Director, believes the changes will mean management time will be diverted. Union involvement is not always in the best interests of the employees and the business.

Where union meetings or activities take place during normal working hours, employees will remain entitled to be paid for that time, even though they are not carrying out their usual duties. Although the new rules are intended to prevent unreasonable disruption to the business, there is no guarantee that this will have no operational impact.

The impact could be greater where a significant proportion of the workforce, or workers within a particular team or department, choose to attend a union meeting. Employers cannot simply prevent employees from exercising their rights, and if a significant number of employees are away at the same time, this could create practical difficulties in keeping particular operations running.

2.  Major business decisions

The impact of the access rights may be greatest when an employer is making decisions that could result in significant changes to the business.

If you are restructuring, making redundancies, changing working arrangements or closing a site, the last thing you need is an additional layer of negotiation.

Where a union has an established route to communicate with workers, an issue that might previously have been dealt with directly could become a collective matter. That could mean more discussion and potentially greater resistance to proposed changes

What should employers do now?

·       Decide who will deal with union access requests

·       Review the workplace and consider where and how access could take place

·       Review relevant HR and workplace policies before the new regime takes effect

·       Brief managers ahead of time

·   Think ahead about major business changes, particularly where redundancies or changes to working practices are planned.

A little preparation now could save employers a much bigger headache later