Trade Union Access Request Response Checklist

From 30 October 2026, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, independent trade unions have a right to access the workplaces of employers that, together with any associated employers, employ 21 or more workers, and to communicate with workers.

This Trade Union Access Request Response Checklist is designed to help Companies when responding to a trade union seeking to have access to the Company’s workforce under the right of access.

Access may be used only for the purposes set out in the legislation: meeting, supporting, representing, recruiting or organising workers, and facilitating collective bargaining. It may not be used to organise industrial action.

If the employer and the union cannot agree, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) can decide whether access is to be given and, if so, on what terms. The CAC must refuse access where, among other grounds:

• The employer, together with any associated employers, has fewer than 21 workers, both on the day the request is received and on average over the previous 13 weeks
• The CAC considers refusal necessary in the interests of national security, or for the prevention, detection or prosecution of criminal offences.

Related templates: our Right of Access by Trade Unions Policy and Trade Union Access Preparation Checklist.

For more on trade unions at work, see our free guides: Trade Union Certification and Recognition, Trade Union Collective Bargaining Rights and Rights of Individual Union Members & Officials.

For the timetable of the Employment Rights Act 2025 reforms, see our Employment Rights Act Implementation Roadmap.

Trade Union Access Request Response Checklist is part of Employment. Just £42.50 + VAT provides unlimited downloads from Employment for 1 year.