UK government consults on trade union workplace access right

The Employment Rights Bill has nearly completed its journey through Parliament, albeit with a ‘ping pong battle ahead after a number of amendments were rejected by the House of Lords last week. Nonetheless, the focus has switched to its implementation of the Bill with publication by the government of four new consultations setting out how key parts of that legislation will work in practice. They cover flexible working, pregnancy and maternity protections, carer’s leave, and trade union rights, specifically the new duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union, and trade union rights of access to the workplace. That last one, rights of access, is by far the most operationally disruptive for employers and it marks a real turning point in UK industrial relations – we’ll speak to an employment lawyer helping clients prepare for it.

It means for the first time, independent trade unions will have a statutory right to request access to workplaces, whether they’re unionised or not, for the purposes of organising, recruiting, and representing members. That includes not just physical access but digital access too.

The consultation sets out how this would work in practice – a new Code of Practice, model access agreements, and a fast-track process enforced by the Central Arbitration Committee. Employers will be expected to engage constructively and respond within five working days. If agreement can’t be reached, the CAC can impose terms and, in serious cases, financial penalties of up to £75,000, or up to £150,000 for repeated breaches.

So, this consultation sets the direction of travel: more access, more enforcement, and less time for employers to respond. It’s a major shift, and one that HR teams will need to start preparing for now.

Lucy Townley is an employment lawyer based in our Edinburgh office and she has been working with a number of clients on this and earlier she joined me by phone to discuss it. I put it to Lucy that this is not about resisting union access, rather understanding which areas of the workforce might be more open to it, and why:

Lucy Townley: “Yes, that's absolutely right. So it's really worth taking stock of the industrial relations climate at all organisations before any request for union access actually lands. So we know that unions are more likely to focus on workplaces where they think they'll get traction, and that normally means workplaces where staff are feeling unheard, or disengaged, or where there are known to be disputes about things, so for example, about pay or about working conditions. So, if there's these signs of dissatisfaction, or departments where communication between employees and management is patchy, that's something to really take seriously. So we've been talking a lot to clients about reviewing things like their grievance trends, their turnover and the information that comes out of exit interviews, for example, all of which helps employers to get a clearer picture of employee morale and really what the attitudes are like on the ground. So this will allow employees to identify which areas of the business are probably most likely to be targeted for union access, and what we're saying is, for those clients who can spot and address employee concerns really early, this is likely to make a big difference to how and their employees will respond to union engagement later.”

Joe Glavina: “As I understand it, employers are going to have fairly limited time to respond when a union makes an access request so it’s important they’re ready for it. Tell me about that, Lucy.”

Lucy Townley: “So once a union makes a formal request for access, the timeline that employers have to respond will be really tight, so we're talking just a few days. So that's why it's so important for employers to be thinking now about what they could agree to and what their practical limits of that agreement might be. So, for example, you might decide that union meetings can happen at the end of a shift but not during core operating hours, or maybe that access to canteens, or social spaces, is okay, but access to other areas isn't possible for example, for health and safety reasons on working floors. The same applies, I guess, to digital platforms. So, employers might need to think about what their red lines are in respect to digital access, so what source of messaging and materials would be acceptable to them? Having those kind of boundaries worked out in advance means that employers will be able to respond constructively and quite quickly if they receive an access request and what we know is that the Central Arbitration Committee will be able to impose terms if agreement can't be reached. So employers who don't think through their position in advance are likely to have something imposed on them that they could have shaped more constructively with just a little bit of forward planning. This will also be really important, because it will mean that employers are able to explain the rationale between any limitations that they've imposed, if it's ever challenged, and to explain to the Central Arbitration Committee quite why they are the red lines that the employer needs to put in place.”

Joe Glavina: “I’m aware that some of the work you’ve been doing with clients has been around simulating access requests and walking through what might happen. Is that right?”

Lucy Townley: “Yes, absolutely. So we've been advising our clients to simulate what these access request scenarios might look like, and to kind of walk through how the access request might play out in advance. Really, the intention of that is to stress test the processes and it helps to answer questions like, who will handle the request, who needs to approve the response, maybe, what teams need to be involved in the discussions? So for example, it'll depend on the business, but for some clients, it'll need to be legal, HR, Operations, IT, and there's lots of different teams that might need to be involved in those discussions. It’s also really important that we think about what happens to those access requests in respect of digital platforms. So for example, how access to those digital systems in particular can be granted and what kind of specific access rights they need. So for example, do they need admin account access? Running through this sort of request process scenario in advance will let you stress test the weak points in the process and then means that businesses won't be scrambling around when a real request comes in. I think for some of our clients who already have union engagement in other parts of the business they might already have access arrangements in place, and they're really good templates to use as a starting point, but for other clients who haven't really had trade union access or a trade union presence in the past, it is probably a good idea to get some support with drafting an agreement. The more familiar that the teams are with what agreements might look like, or what has been considered, will mean that their response can be smoother and more confident when going back to the union on the access request.”

All four consultations were published on 23 October 2025 and are open for comment. The two consultations on trade union rights – one on access to workplaces and the other on the duty to inform workers of their right to join a union – both have short timescales, closing on 18 December. If you want to respond you can do so online via the gov.uk website and we’ve included a link to it in the transcript of this programme for you. 

- Link to the Government’s two trade union related consultations:

Make Work Pay: trade union right of access 

Make Work Pay: duty to inform workers of their right to join a union