Trade Unions Are Coming to a Workplace Near You… Are You Ready?
For many small and medium-sized businesses, discussions around trade unions may not be something that crops up very often.
You may not recognise a union.
You might not have any employees who are union members — at least, not that you’re aware of, so it would be understandable to look at the forthcoming changes to trade union law and think:
“That doesn’t really affect us.”
But that could be about to change.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces some significant new trade union rights, and there are two changes in particular that employers need to have on their radar.
And don’t worry — we’ll try to explain them without disappearing too far down the employment-law rabbit hole!
You’ll need to tell workers about their right to join a trade union
The first change is relatively straightforward, but it could require businesses to make some changes to their onboarding processes.
Employers will have a new duty to give workers a written statement telling them that they have the right to join a trade union.
The legislation says this information must be provided alongside the worker’s written statement of employment particulars, with further regulations able to specify other times when the information needs to be given.
So, in simple terms, employers won’t just be expected to allow workers to join a union — they will actually have to tell them about their right to do so. In a specifically worded written statement.
For businesses that have never had much involvement with trade unions, that may feel like quite a shift.
It is also worth noting that the requirement refers to workers, rather than just employees, so businesses will need to make sure they understand who is covered.
The practical takeaway?
Once the requirements come into force (which at the moment we anticipate to be January 2027), onboarding paperwork and processes will need reviewing to make sure this new information isn’t accidentally missed.
What happens if a trade union asks to come into your workplace?
This is probably the change that will catch more employers out if they’re not looking out for it.
Under the new workplace access regime, a qualifying independent trade union will be able to make a formal request to access a workplace.
And importantly, they don’t necessarily need to already have union members working there.
The purpose of that access could include meeting and supporting workers, representing them, recruiting new union members, organising workers or facilitating collective bargaining.
And “access” doesn’t necessarily just mean somebody physically walking through your front door. It can also include communicating with workers by other means.
So imagine an email lands in your inbox saying:
“We’re a trade union and we’d like access to your workplace to speak to your staff.”
For plenty of business owners, the immediate reaction might understandably be:
“Thanks…but no thanks.”
Unfortunately, it may not be quite that simple.
You can’t just ignore the request
The proposed rules set out a formal process for dealing with union access requests.
Under the draft regulations, once a qualifying union makes a formal request, an employer would have 15 working days to respond.
If the employer responds but an agreement isn’t immediately reached, there would then be a 25 working-day negotiation period.
If the employer doesn’t respond, or the two sides can’t agree, the matter could ultimately be referred to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), which can determine whether access should be allowed and what that access should look like.
The general principle is that unions should be able to communicate with workers or enter a workplace for the permitted purposes without unreasonably interfering with the running of the business.
So, thankfully, we’re not necessarily talking about a union representative wandering into reception one Tuesday morning and announcing:
“Morning! We’re here to speak to everyone.”
There is a process and employers have a say in that process too.
Does that mean you always have to say yes?
Not necessarily.
There are circumstances where access can be refused or restricted. These can include considerations around small employers, health and safety, national security, criminal offences, insufficient notice and situations where other access arrangements or requests are already in place.
There is also scope for employers and unions to agree how the access will work in practice.
For example, discussions could cover how often union representatives visit, avoiding particularly busy periods, how many representatives can attend, where meetings can take place and rules around photography or recording.
So the message isn't:
“A union asks to come in, so you simply have to open the doors.”
It’s more:
“If a union makes a formal request, don't ignore it. Understand what they're asking for, follow the correct process and respond appropriately.”
And there’s a particularly good reason for that…
Getting it wrong could become VERY expensive
This is the bit that is likely to grab the attention of most business owners.
The enforcement provisions covered by the new regime allow for increasingly serious consequences where an access agreement is breached or ignored.
A first breach can result in a compliance order or changes to the agreement.
Further breaches can potentially lead to significant financial penalties:
Second breach – up to £75,000
Third breach – up to £150,000
Further breaches – up to £500,000
Yes, you read that last figure correctly.
Half a million pounds.
It is important to put that figure into context. This doesn't mean an employer automatically receives a £500,000 fine simply for saying no to a union request. These are escalating penalties within the enforcement regime for breaches of access agreements but it does demonstrate why this is something employers need to take seriously.
What should employers be doing now?
As with so many employment law changes, it can be tempting to think:
“We'll worry about it when it happens.”
But a little preparation now could make things considerably easier later.
Businesses should think about who would deal with a trade union access request if one arrived. Make sure whoever opens your post knows to look out for this and what to do with it. Make sure managers understand that workers have the right to join a union, and prepare to review onboarding documentation so the new union-rights information is included when required.
And perhaps most importantly, if a union does contact you, don't panic, don't ignore it and don't automatically reject it simply because you've never dealt with a trade union before.
One piece of advice from the Daniel Barnett Employment Rights Act masterclass we recently attended summed the approach up particularly well:
“Negotiate rather than resist.”
For many SMEs, trade union legislation may previously have felt like something that mainly concerned huge employers, factories or the public sector.
These changes could bring the subject considerably closer to home.
So if that email from a trade union eventually does land in your inbox, before hitting DELETE…
It might be worth giving your friendly HR consultant a call first. 😉