The Employment Rights Act introduces the most significant reforms to trade union law in a generation, with the aim of expanding and empowering the trade union movement. The reforms will affect all businesses, including many which have had little or no previous engagement with unions. They will make it much easier for trade unions to campaign, win recognition and call industrial action. In this article, we consider the impact that these measures will have on employers, and whether the Act will bring about a long-term resurgence for the trade union movement. 

Union rights of access 

The Act introduces a new right for trade unions to access workplaces for a wide range of purposes. These include meeting, supporting, representing, recruiting and organising workers (except for industrial action) and collective bargaining purposes. 

Until now, unions have not had a general right to enter workplaces, unless an employer voluntarily agrees to this (for example, under the terms of a collective agreement under which it has already agreed to recognise a union) or when the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) has ordered access in advance of workforce ballot as part of a statutory recognition application.

Under the Act, unions will be able to request access, in the form of:

• physical entry to workplaces,
• digital communications with employees, or
• both. 

Under a broadly similar process to the existing statutory union recognition framework, employers may then choose to:

• negotiate an access arrangement, or 
• face an application by the union to the CAC, which will have new powers to order access. 

The CAC will only be able to refuse access to a workplace altogether where “it is reasonable in all the circumstances to do so”, which will be a very challenging threshold for employers to meet. The CAC will also gain new powers to impose financial penalties on employers for repeated non-compliance with access agreements. 

However, in contrast to the existing statutory union recognition framework, unions will not have to demonstrate any minimum level of membership or support among the workforce to be awarded access by the CAC, nor will entering into an access agreement with one union necessarily block another union from obtaining access in respect of the same workplace. 

These provisions are expected to take effect from October 2026 and were the subject of a consultation, which ended on 18 December 2025 (see here for the full document). This consultation set out more detailed proposals on the functioning of the process, restrictions on the right of access, how access arrangements will work in practice, and how they will be enforced. We have covered these changes in detail in a separate article. 

The government will publish a “model agreement”; while this will not be a statutory default, the CAC will be required to order access if the union’s request reflects the model terms. We therefore expect these model terms to strongly influence market practice and to set the key parameters for any negotiations over access requests. 

Unhelpfully, the government provided little information in its consultation about the contents of these model terms. It has proposed that the model terms will provide for access on a weekly basis, which would be onerous for employers to facilitate (and also challenging for unions to resource), and that unions must give two working days’ notice of any access. For many employers, the practical impact of the new right of access will depend in large part on what safeguards (if any) the model terms include to minimise disruption to their operations. 

The CAC will have the power to impose penalty fines for breaches of access agreements. The government has proposed a two-tiered system of fines; a standard cap of £75,000 will apply, with an increased cap of £150,000 for repeated breaches. 

There are still many key details which remain unclear regarding the practical requirements for physical or digital access: how many union officials will be able to enter a workplace, and for how long? Can digital access be satisfied by an email to staff or must the union have access to the employer’s electronic systems? The government intends to consult on a Code of Practice on the right of access in spring 2026, which will hopefully provide much-needed practical guidance on how employers will be required to comply with this new obligation.

The new right of access represents a major victory for the trade union movement, after decades of lobbying for it. It will be a significant change for non-unionised employers, who may have to deal with campaigning by unions on their workplaces for the first time. Unions may use access to gain a foothold in new businesses, especially given the lower thresholds for statutory union recognition under the Act (as discussed below).

However, given that the union movement has limited resources and a relatively small pool of full-time officials, it remains to be seen how widely they will be able to make use of the new right of access. In practice, at least initially, unions are likely to focus their access requests on businesses where they already have ongoing organising campaigns.  

As we anticipate that multiple unions will be able to apply for access at the same workplace, it is also likely to lead to increased conflict between unions as they compete to poach each other’s members. The presence of a recognised trade union is likely to be a factor for the CAC to take into account when deciding whether it would be reasonable to refuse an access request, but it will not automatically exempt the workplace from access requests.

Given the potential disruption that these changes may cause, employers should be proactive in preparing for potential union access requests once the exact legal framework is known, for example by providing appropriate training and resources for managers and reviewing relevant operational policies and procedures. 

Recognition

The Act will make it significantly easier for trade unions to win statutory recognition for collective bargaining purposes. Unions will no longer be required to show that a majority of the proposed bargaining unit is likely to support recognition at the outset of an application to the CAC, and, where a ballot is held, the requirement that at least 40% of all workers in the bargaining unit vote in favour of recognition will also be removed. 

The Act also gives the government a power to reduce the required threshold for union membership to as low as 2% of the proposed bargaining unit (currently 10%). 

Existing restrictions on unfair practices during the recognition process will apply as soon as the union’s request for recognition is accepted by the CAC (as opposed to only applying after a ballot on recognition has been ordered).

Finally, any employees who start employment after the date on which the CAC receives a union’s recognition application will be disregarded for the purposes of the application, and in particular will not be entitled to vote in any ballot. This change was likely introduced in response to union criticism of tactics allegedly used to defeat a recent high-profile recognition request. 

The changes to recognition rules are due to take place in April 2026. They will inform unions’ medium- and long-term organising strategies, and we expect to see a significant increase in recognition requests once the new rules come into effect. 

Employers should understand that lowered thresholds will mean they can no longer rely on worker apathy and low turnout to defeat a ballot for recognition. In future, a determined minority of employees who are union members will have the potential to secure recognition for the whole workforce. Non-unionised employers who do not wish to recognise a trade union will need to be more proactive in their efforts to defeat recognition.

However, it is also important to note that, where unions are able to secure recognition, the Act does not change the scope of the collective bargaining rights under the statutory recognition framework. In particular, collective bargaining remains limited to pay, hours and holiday only and does not give unions a veto over any changes. 

Strike action

Most of the restrictions on strike action introduced by the previous Conservative government are also in the firing line. The Act will:

• remove the 50% turnout threshold for strike action,
• significantly simplify the information which unions must provide to employers in notices of ballots and industrial action, 
• reduce the notice unions must give employers for industrial action (from 14 to 10 days), 
• extend successful mandates for industrial action from 6 months to 12 months,
• remove extensive duties on unions to supervise picketing, and
• pave the way for electronic balloting to be introduced by regulations without the need for an independent review or pilot scheme. 

Most of these changes become effective two months after the Act was passed (on 18 February 2026). Electronic balloting on industrial action should follow in August 2026.

The Act has already repealed the requirement for minimum service levels in certain sectors during industrial action (though those measures had very limited practical impact in any case).

Taken together, these changes will make it easier for unions to secure a mandate for industrial action (including through less cumbersome electronic balloting), provide fewer avenues for employers to challenge the validity of a mandate (by reducing the grounds on which an injunction can be sought for an invalid ballot or unsupervised picketing), and increase the time period within which the union can call industrial action without having to seek a fresh mandate.

Other protections: detriment, blacklisting, and representatives

The Act will remedy the issues identified by the Supreme Court ruling that the UK is required (but failed) to protect workers from sanctions short of dismissal for taking part in lawful industrial action. The Act will prohibit employers from subjecting workers to detriments for the sole or main purpose of preventing or deterring the worker from taking industrial action or penalising them for having done so.

Secondary legislation may prescribe specific kinds of detriment but equally could leave the definition broad and open. Employers should therefore exercise caution when dealing with employees who are going on or have recently returned from industrial action. 

It is important to note that employers are still entitled to refuse to pay an employee for hours not worked while taking industrial action. The Act does not change this.

There will be a new role for union “equality representatives” in unionised workplaces, who are charged with promoting equality in the workplace, providing advice and support to union members on equality matters, and consulting with the employer on equality matters. The UK trade union movement has often been criticised for its failure to prioritise diversity and inclusion issues (as well as its poor internal record on those matters), and it remains to be seen whether this reform will result in increased union campaigning over equalities issues in the workplace.

The Act expands union representatives’ existing right to paid time off to carry out their duties, to include a new entitlement to reasonable facilities and accommodations to carry out their duties.

The Act also extends the existing protections against “blacklisting” and related discriminatory actions against trade union members to bodies other than employers or employment agencies. 

These changes are due to take effect in October 2026 at the earliest, with blacklisting protections pushed out to 2027. They will be more relevant to unionised employers, but non-unionised employers should also take heed of the prohibitions on detriment and blacklisting in relation to current employees or job applicants who are (or have been) involved in industrial action.

Notification of right to join a trade union

Employers are already obliged to inform workers of various particulars of their employment in a “day 1” statement. The Act introduces a duty to simultaneously provide an explicit statement to both new and existing workers that they have the right to join a trade union. The specific content and form of this statement and how and when it must be given will be set out in future secondary legislation.

This change is due to take effect in October 2026 and was also the subject of a consultation (see here for the full document). It is currently proposed that the government will produce a single, standard written statement, to which employers would only need to add any further information that is specific to their organisation. For new workers, the government proposed that the statement should be delivered directly alongside the statement of employment particulars. For existing workers, the government has proposed that the statement could be delivered indirectly or directly. Indirectly could involve posting it on a notice board or the staff intranet with government guidance expected on how to make the information easy to access. 

While this measure adds to the compliance burden on employers, we do not expect it to result in a major rise in union membership, as it is limited to providing employees with neutral information which is already publicly available to them. 

What are the implications for employers?

The Act has the potential to significantly change the trade union and collective bargaining landscape in Great Britain, if unions can take advantage of the new opportunities presented to them. 

The most important changes for non-unionised employers are likely to be the new access arrangements and lower thresholds for statutory recognition. 

For business who have had little or no engagement with unions in the past, the new access rights may create daunting practical challenges. While we are still awaiting further information from the government about key elements of this new measure, employers will need to plan carefully to ensure that they can respond effectively to potential access requests later this year. 

The reduced thresholds for statutory recognition will mean that unions are likely to secure collective bargaining rights at more workplaces.  From 6 April 2026, it may be possible for a union to secure statutory recognition with as little as 2% membership among the relevant workforce. However, employers may take some comfort that, where a union wins recognition based on the support of such a small minority of committed activists, the union will struggle to wield meaningful industrial leverage, particularly as any industrial action will be unlikely to cause significant disruption. 

Taken together, these changes make it much more important for non-unionised businesses with little or no track record of union engagement to develop proactive labour relations strategies. For example, employers should review their existing employee engagement structures to ensure that staff are able to have their voice heard directly at work on the issues that matter to them. 

For businesses which already recognise trade unions, the Act will make it easier for unions to call strikes and gives union members and representatives increased rights and protections. Unionised employers may wish to consider proactively exploring access arrangements with their recognised trade union(s) once we have more clarity about the scope of the new model terms, and should be alert to the risk that access requests by other unions may destabilise established industrial relations. 

The government has presented these reforms as an attempt to reverse the long-term decline of the membership and influence of the UK trade union movement since its peak in the 1970s. While the Act represents a profound shift in the balance of the UK’s industrial relations framework in favour of the unions, it is unclear whether legislative changes alone will be enough to achieve that goal. On a practical level, in the short term, the unions have limited staff and may struggle to resource the increased organising activities needed to capitalise on the reforms in the Act. 

Perhaps more importantly, in order to attract significant numbers of new members, the unions will have to demonstrate their relevance to the modern workforce, whose working lives have radically changed since the unions’ 1970s heyday. Over the last 45 years, unions have struggled to adapt to fundamental changes in the workplace – from deindustrialisation to new forms of communications and the increased importance of diversity and inclusion. Unless unions can persuade new generations of workers that they can deliver on their key concerns, the impact of the reforms in the Act may fall short of the government’s ambitious goals.