Union access rights take effect in Britain under new employment law

Trade unions in Britain gained new rights on 30 October 2026 to enter workplaces or communicate with staff electronically, under the Employment Rights Act 2025. The Trades Union Congress (TUC), the federation of trade unions, has said it expects a wave of new union recognition deals with employers.

Recognition means an employer agrees to negotiate with a union on behalf of its staff over pay and conditions. Access agreements, the arrangements that let union representatives reach workers, can run for up to two years, according to the TUC.

Where a union cannot agree access with an employer, it can use a formal process to request access, overseen by the Central Arbitration Committee, the body that handles such disputes. If access is refused or delayed, the committee can impose penalties, the TUC said.

Paul Nowak, the TUC’s general secretary, predicted that by this time next year “hundreds, if not thousands” of new union recognition agreements with employers would have been signed. He said that “hundreds, if not thousands” of employers could sign access agreements as “transformative” rules come into force. Nowak pointed to recent recognition agreements between the retailer John Lewis and the union Usdaw, and between the union GMB and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, as examples of the trend, according to The Guardian.

Polling carried out for the TUC by the research firm YouGov found that 62% of workers would support a trade union negotiating on their behalf on pay and conditions. The same polling found that 36% of non-union members said they would not know how to join a union.

Employers will also have to tell workers in writing about their right to join a trade union. That obligation starts in January, under the Employment Rights Act rollout.