Employment Rights
Act 2025
Your essential guide to the changes and what you need to do to stay compliant.
In April 2026, the draft Code of Practice on the right of trade unions to access workplaces was published. Part 1 of this briefing focuses on these new rights of access, due to come into effect in October 2026.
This right applies to all employers with 21 or more workers irrespective of whether or not an employer has ever interacted with a trade union or recognises a trade union. The penalties for non-compliance are significant — up to £500,000 for repeated breaches, so it is essential to understand your obligations.
A reminder of the changes to unfair dismissal coming into force on 1 January 2027 and the practical steps that can be taken to minimise claims risks is set out at part 2.
Trade union rights of access to workplaces
The 2025 Act provides trade unions with the right to access workplaces physically or digitally. The practical detail is contained within the draft Code of Practice which was published in April 2026 and is available here.
From October 2026, trade unions will have a right to access your workplace for specified purposes: to "meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers (whether or not they are members of a trade union)" and/or "to facilitate collective bargaining".
The standard frequency of access is weekly and should take place during normal working hours, with an obligation on an employer to ensure the privacy of meetings.
An independent tribunal, the Central Arbitration Committee (‘CAC’), will oversee the new arrangements and can compel an employer to permit access, and impose penalties for non-compliance.
Although the right applies irrespective of whether or not the employer recognises a union, it is less likely that an employer who recognises a union will be compelled to permit access if the access request is made by a trade union that represents one or more of the workers that are subject to this request.
The Code provides that stage 1 is for a union to seek to agree terms of access with an employer on a voluntary basis.
If this is not achieved, a union can then submit an access request to the employer using the standard ‘request for access’ form appended to the Code.
Once received, an employer has 15 working days to respond, and the Code sets out a standard response form for employer to use.
The parties have 25 working days from the end of the response period to reach agreement on an access agreement. If an agreement is reached, this should be sent to the CAC for recording.
If negotiations are unsuccessful, either the employer or the union can apply to the CAC and the CAC will determine the access rights.
A union can submit a complaint to the CAC alleging non-compliance. The CAC does not have the power to impose a financial penalty in respect of a first complaint. The CAC has the power to amend the access agreement or issue an order requiring certain steps to be taken.
If there is a further breach, the union can then apply to the CAC and, if the complaint is well-founded, a penalty of up to £75,000 can be imposed by the CAC at that stage. If there is a second breach, the maximum penalty increases to £150,000, with a maximum penalty of up to £500,000 for any third or subsequent breach.
Unfair dismissal changes and steps to take before 1 July 2026
As detailed in briefing #1, the qualifying period to bring an unfair dismissal claim will reduce from just under two years to 6 months, effective from 1 January 2027.
Employees with at least 6 months’ service as at 1 January 2027 will be able to make a claim — service prior to January 2027 will count. This means that anyone starting employment on or prior to 1 July 2026 will qualify to bring an unfair dismissal claim on 1 January 2027.
In calculating whether an employee has attained 6 months’ service, statutory notice (of one week for employees with more than a month but less than two years’ service) is always added on — so the qualifying service you should work to is 6 months less one week.
As an example, this means that an employee who commences employment with you on 1 August 2026 will accrue the right to claim unfair dismissal on 24 January 2027 (not 31 January).
Contractual notice is not relevant in calculating the qualifying period, unless an employer asks an employee to work out their contractual notice period and this brings them to or beyond the qualifying period. In most cases, employment can be terminated with immediate effect and without notice, with a payment in lieu (or instead) of notice being made. A payment in lieu of notice does not operate to extend an employee’s period of service (save that the applicable statutory notice period is added on).
The cap on compensation for unfair dismissal, currently the lower of £123,543 or one year’s gross salary, will also be removed.
