ERA reforms in depth: Industrial relations

The below changes to the statutory recognition process took effect from 6 April 2026, with the new right of access and extended protections for trade union representatives coming into force on 30 October 2026. The duty to inform workers of their right to join a union is now expected to come into effect in January 2027 (the government had previously stated this would be in October 2026).

Previous/current position

Employers have limited obligations in terms of notifying workers of their right to join a trade union/their rights as a union member. Equally, there is currently no general right for trade unions to access workplaces for the purposes of recruitment and organisation.

The previous thresholds for obtaining formal statutory recognition were sometimes challenging for trade unions, particularly within workforces where there is no widespread appetite for trade union recognition.

What is changing?

The key industrial relations reforms set out within the Act are outlined below:

• A new duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union via a written, standardised statement at the outset of employment and at other ‘prescribed times’.
• Trade unions will have a right to access for the purposes of meeting, recruiting or organising workers or facilitating collective bargaining. Access for these purposes means physical entry into a workplace and/or communication with workers by any means (including digital access). Such access will be organised through legally enforceable ‘access agreements’, either agreed between the employer and trade union or, where the union and employer are unable to agree, as determined by the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC). The statutory process for implementing ‘access agreements’ will be set out in separate regulations and the government has consulted on what that process should look like, as detailed below.
• The hurdles trade unions need to overcome for statutory recognition were lowered with effect from 6 April 2026:
  • removal of the application requirement to show likely majority support for recognition in the chosen bargaining unit (BU).
  • removal of the requirement at the ballot stage to show 40% support of the BU.
  • introduction of powers through which the government may reduce the current threshold requirement for union membership in the BU from 10% to as low as 2%.
• The existing rights for trade union officials to take time off for various union activities will be extended to include a new group of trade union ‘equality’ representatives. These rights to time off will also be strengthened to provide that it will be for the employer to demonstrate that requested ‘time off’ was not reasonable and to introduce an additional requirement for employers to provide ‘such accommodation or facilities as are reasonable in the circumstances’ for carrying out the relevant trade union activities that the official is taking the time off for. In January 2026, Acas launched consultation into draft updates to its Code of Practice on time off for trade union duties and activities to reflect these extended rights for trade union officials and equality representatives. 

In April 2026, the government responded to its consultation into the right of trade unions to access workplaces. In its response, the government outlined the policy positions that it intends to reflect in the secondary legislation which will set out the statutory process for access agreements. These include that:

• access requests and employer responses must be in writing, with email as the preferred method.
• the government will provide a standardised template for access requests and employer responses.
• unions will be required to provide certain information in access requests, including the type of access requested, a general description of workers access is being sought to and the frequence of access requested.
• similarly, employers will be required to provide certain information in their responses to access requests, including (where relevant) the reasons for rejection of the request.
• employers with fewer than 21 employees will be exempt from the trade union access framework, which will be a welcome relief for small employers.
• where the CAC finds that a party has breached the terms of an access agreement, the maximum penalty it can issue will be £75,000 for first breach, £150,000 for second breach and £500,000 for third and repeated breaches. The CAC will be required to take into account a range of different factors when determining the level of any penalty.

The government also outlined that it plans to implement longer time-periods for handling access requests than the very tight timeframes it had proposed in the original consultation. The employer will now have 15 working days within which to respond to an access request (up from 5 working days) and, if the request is rejected, the parties will have 25 working days within which to negotiate (up from 15 working days). If either party wishes to refer the matter to the CAC, this will need to be done within 55 working days (up from 25 working days) of the access request being made. Further details on the timeframes and process for requesting access, are set out in the code of practice on the right of trade unions to access workplaces.

In September 2026, the government published its response to its consultation on the duty to inform workers of the right to join a trade union. Key points are as follows:

• The government will provide a standardised statement (not to be amended except where specified) for employers to provide to new and existing workers. The written statement will provide ‘clear, neutral’ information on the right to join a trade union as well as a brief explanation of union functions, a link to the Certification Officer’s list of trade unions and a summary of statutory rights. In addition, the employer will also need to include information on and contact details of the trade unions it recognises (including, where relevant, the staff group(s), grades or locations covered where the listed union(s) do not apply to all workers) and/ or of the unions with statutory access agreements in place.
• The statement should be provided to all workers – for new workers it should be provided when they receive their written statement of employment particulars. For existing workers, employers can:
  • provide the statement directly to workers annually by 5 April; or
  • provide it indirectly, e.g. on virtual or physical noticeboards so long as the worker knows where to find the statement, has continuous and reasonable access to it and is reminded by 5 April each year that the statement is available and where to find it. Should the location of the statement change, the employer must inform workers directly of such change.

• If there is a change to recognised trade unions or statutory access agreements, the statement must be re-issued within one month of such change.

Next steps

The duty is expected to come into force in January 2027 (not this October as previously indicated). Employers will be required to issue the statement to all new workers who join from the commencement date in January and to deliver the statement to all existing employees by 5 April 2027.

Alongside changes to the industrial action regime, these changes will mean that trade unions have a larger role to play in employee relations.

Employers should assess their employee relations strategy, particularly if they do not currently recognise trade unions. They should assess how they engage with their staff on a collective level and give their workers a ‘voice’. In doing so, employers should potentially consider putting in place other employee bodies such as forums and councils if they feel they would be more representative of their workforce.

The new rights of trade union access are likely to have a particularly big impact – a trade union will be able to make a request for access even where it is not recognised by the employer and it has little or no existing membership or presence within the workforce. In this article, we explain what employers need to know about this significant new right and how they can prepare.