By New workplace access rules for trade unions have taken effect in the UK under the Employment Rights Act, according to Traders Union. Employers with 21 or more employees must now allow unions weekly in-person and digital access to workers. The contact must take place without monitoring discussions, and staff must be paid for the time involved.
Noncompliance can lead to intervention by the Central Arbitration Committee, with fines starting at £75,000 and rising to £500,000. The change sits alongside other employment law measures, including easier union recognition, revised dismissal rules, and steps that make strike action easier. More than 90 percent of consultation respondents opposed weekly access with two days’ notice, Traders Union reported, citing the Financial Times for specific rule details.
What the access right means in practice
The rule creates a statutory right of access that goes beyond existing recognition arrangements. Employers must permit union representatives to meet workers on site and through digital channels each week. The employer cannot monitor those discussions, which means HR teams should not sit in on meetings, record them, or ask managers to report back on what was said.
Paying staff for the time involved adds a direct payroll cost. For hourly workers, that means recording the time spent in union meetings as working time and paying it at the normal rate. For salaried staff, the cost is less visible but still real in lost productive hours.
The Homecare Association has estimated that annual social care sector costs could reach £1 billion, according to the Traders Union report. That figure reflects the cumulative effect of paid access time, administrative work, and the wider package of employment law changes rather than access alone.
How the 21-employee threshold works
The threshold is based on total headcount, not full-time equivalents. Employers should count all workers on the payroll at the point a union requests access, including part-time and fixed-term staff. The source material does not state whether agency workers are included, so employers with significant agency or contractor populations should seek specific legal advice before deciding they fall below the line.
Traders Union noted that some employers may delay expansion to avoid crossing the 21-worker threshold. That is a commercial decision, but HR and finance leads should weigh it against the operational cost of holding back hiring. The threshold is low enough that many small care providers, nurseries, and independent retailers will now be covered for the first time.
Enforcement and penalties
The Central Arbitration Committee is the enforcement body. Where an employer fails to comply, the CAC can intervene and impose fines. The starting point is £75,000, rising to £500,000. The source does not specify the factors that determine where a fine falls within that range, but the scale of the maximum penalty signals that this is intended as a serious deterrent rather than a minor administrative charge.
Employers should treat a union access request as a formal legal obligation from the moment it arrives. Delaying a response, imposing conditions that are not in the legislation, or attempting to monitor meetings could all trigger a complaint.
What HR and payroll teams should do now
The first step is to establish whether the organisation has 21 or more employees and therefore falls within scope. The second is to brief managers on what they can and cannot do when a union representative attends the workplace. Managers should not ask workers what was discussed, should not sit in on meetings, and should not treat attendance as a disciplinary or performance issue.
Payroll teams need a clear process for recording union access time as paid working time. That means agreeing how time is logged, who approves it, and how it feeds into payroll runs. For employers with multiple sites, a consistent approach matters because inconsistent treatment across locations could itself become a compliance risk.
HR teams should also review existing policies on workplace visitors, meeting rooms, and digital communications. A blanket policy that requires all external visitors to be accompanied by a manager may conflict with the new access right. Digital access raises questions about which platforms unions can use and whether the employer must provide equipment or connectivity. The source material does not specify those details, so employers should confirm the precise requirements for their situation.
Timing and related changes
The Traders Union report said the rules took effect under the Employment Rights Act but did not give an exact calendar date. Bhayani Law has separately dated related Employment Rights Act changes to October 2026, including third-party harassment rules starting 30 October 2026 and extended employment tribunal time limits from 1 October 2026. The TUC states that the Act’s changes are being implemented in stages from December 2025 through to 2027.
That staged picture matters for planning. Employers may face union access obligations, new harassment duties, and longer tribunal limitation periods within the same financial year. Budgeting should account for all three, not just the access rule in isolation.
The distinction between access and recognition also matters. Access is a statutory right to communicate with workers. Recognition is a separate process that gives a union collective bargaining rights. An employer can be required to provide access even where no union is recognised, provided the threshold is met and a union requests it.
Sources: tradersunion
Photo: Great Meeting Union Square by Winslow Homer, Public domain
