Employment Rights Act 2025: timeline updated and trade union consultation outcomes published

Implementation timeline

The original timeline was set out in the Government’s Roadmap published on 1 July 2025. At that time, it was intended that the Act’s measures would take effect on two dates in the year, 6 April and 1 October. Subsequent updates to the timeline simply referred to October with no specific date. For details of the changes implemented on 6 April 2026, see our earlier article April 2026 key dates.

The most recent update was on 7 August 2026 and it confirms the following:

• Measures that will take effect on 25 August 2026
  • Electronic and workplace balloting for statutory trade union ballots.

• Measures that will take effect on 1 October 2026
  • The time limit for bringing an Employment Tribunal claim will increase from 3 to 6 months – for breach of employment contract claims in Scotland this change will take place on 9 November 2026.

• Measures that will take effect on 30 October 2026

The trade union measures include:

• • The duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union.
  • Strengthening trade unions’ right of access.
  • Implementing reforms to access and unfair practices during the recognition and derecognition process.
  • New rights and protections for trade union representatives.
  • Extending protections against detriments for taking industrial action

The harassment measures include:

• • Requiring employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.
  • Introducing an obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties.
  • Introducing a power enabling regulations to be made at a later date, specifying evidence-based steps which employers must take to prevent sexual harassment.

• Other measures that will be introduced in October 2026
  • Bringing forward regulations to establish the Fair Pay Agreement Adult Social Care Negotiating Body in England.
  • Procurement – reinstating the two-tier code to ensure outsourced private sector employees are offered no less favourable terms and conditions to employees transferred from the public sector.

• Measures that will take effect in December 2026
  • Introducing Seafarer Protection Regulations.

• Measures that will take effect by the end of 2026
  • Strengthening tipping law (which has been put back from October 2026).

Looking ahead to 2027, the high-profile changes to unfair dismissal, namely the reduction of the qualifying period to six months and removal of the compensation cap will take effect from 1 January 2027. The fire and rehire protections will be implemented the same month but no date has been confirmed.

All other remaining measures contained in the Act, including mandatory equality action plans, the collective redundancy consultation threshold, flexible working, bereavement leave and the right to guaranteed hours will take effect in 2027.

Consultation outcomes

There have been a number of important consultation outcomes relating to the Act’s trade union measures which are relevant to the August and October 2026 implementation dates.

Code of Practice on electronic and workplace balloting for statutory trade union ballots

Currently, depending on the nature of the ballot, ballots can be held by post or by workplace balloting. For instance, ballots for industrial action must be by post while ballots for statutory recognition and derecognition of trade unions can be carried out by post or by workplace balloting. The Government intends to introduce electronic and workplace balloting in a phased approach and to extend workplace balloting to industrial action ballots.

Back in November 2025, the Government consulted on a draft Code of Practice on electronic and workplace balloting “to support the introduction of these new voting methods”. The draft Code of Practice provides practical guidance to independent scrutineers, trade unions and their members and employers. The consultation period ended on 28 January 2026 and on 22 June 2026, the Government provided the draft Code of Practice to Parliament along with the draft Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026.

Protection from detriments for taking industrial action

The Act strengthens protection against detriment and unfair dismissal for taking industrial action. Earlier in the year, the Government consulted on the scope of the prohibition on detriments employers might impose to penalise, prevent or deter someone for taking lawful industrial action. In its consultation outcome published on 23 June 2026, the Government confirmed that rather than setting out a prescribed list of prohibited detriments in the relevant legislation, it will prohibit all forms of detriment, which was its preferred lead option.

The draft Protection Against Detriment (Industrial Action) Regulations 2026 have now been published and if approved by Parliament, will come into force on 30 October 2026. The draft Regulations also provide that any compensation awarded may be adjusted (increased or decreased) by up to 25% where there is unreasonable failure to comply with a relevant statutory Code of Practice.

Right of trade unions to access workplaces

The Act provides a new statutory framework whereby trade unions can negotiate “access agreements” with an employer for physical and/or virtual access to workplaces for a range of reasons but not to organise industrial action. If negotiations are unsuccessful, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) can impose access terms.

Following an earlier consultation about how the right of access will work, on 8 April 2026, the Government consulted on a draft Code of Practice on trade unions right of access. This covered practical issues such as how to apply for access, how to respond to an access request, the response period for an employer, the negotiation period, how to resolve disputes and the enforcement mechanisms. The consultation also set out the circumstances when access must not be granted and where it is reasonable for access not to be granted.

On 6 July 2026, the Government published its response to the consultation and also published the final draft of the Code of Practice, the draft Trade Unions (Right to Access Workplaces) Regulations 2026 and the Trade Unions (Right to Access Workplaces) (Required Information) Regulations 2026.

The Code of Practice and the Regulations will be considered by Parliament and if approved, are expected to take effect on 30 October 2026.

Reforms to access and unfair practices during the recognition and derecognition process

The Act makes changes to provide better access arrangements for trade unions during the recognition and derecognition process and for dealing more effectively with unfair practices. Certain measures to simplify the trade union recognition process have already taken effect (on 6 April 2026).

To reflect the Act’s changes, the CAC Code of Practice: Access and Unfair Practices During the Recognition and Derecognition Process will be revised. Consultation on the revised Code of Practice commenced on 4 February 2026 and ended on 1 April 2026. The purpose of the revised Code of Practice is to provide practical guidance. It covers issues such as the duties of the parties, preparing for access, establishing an access agreement as well as responsible campaigning, unfair practices and resolving disputes.

On 6 July 2026, the Government published its response to the consultation and also published an amended version of the revised Code of Practice. The preamble to the revised Code of Practice makes it clear that employers that have 20 workers or fewer are out of scope of the statutory trade union recognition and derecognition process. Trade unions will have earlier and more frequent access during the recognition and derecognition process and the frequency of access meetings will increase to once every five working days from every ten working days. To ensure that there is sufficient time for meaningful engagement with the trade unions, the minimum duration of meetings will increase from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

The revised Code of Practice was presented to Parliament on 6 July 2026 and subject to approval, it is expected to come into force on 30 October 2026.

New rights and protections for trade union representatives

Employees who are trade union representatives or learning representatives must be allowed reasonable paid time off during working hours to carry out certain trade union duties or for learning-related purposes. They must also have sufficient access to facilities, for example, office and meeting spaces and internet access to enable them to fulfil their duties.

The Act introduces a new right statutory right to reasonable paid time off during working hours for “equality representatives” to enable them to carry out equality-related duties. These include providing information, advice or support to members in relation to equality matters and supporting equality at work.

The Act also shifts the burden of proof to employers. Consequently, if a trade union representative says they were not given reasonable time off the employer must show the request was unreasonable.

Following a consultation on the Acas Code of Practice on time off for trade union duties and activities including guidance on time off for union learning representatives, which ended on 17 March 2026, the updated Code of Practice was presented to Parliament on 7 July 2026.

The updated Code of Practice gives numerous examples of trade union duties for trade union, learning and equality representatives. It also provides details of what the relevant factors might be in determining what it is “reasonable” to provide. This will depend on all the circumstances but the employer’s size and available resources, operational requirements and organisational structure are all relevant.

Both newly appointed and more established representatives must be allowed reasonable time off during working hours for training relevant to their duties.

The Government will publish its response to the Acas consultation “in due course” and it is expected that the Code of Practice will come into force on 30 October 2026.

Statement on right to join a trade union

The Act introduces a new duty on employers to provide their workers with a written statement informing them of their right to join a trade union. This statement has to be provided alongside the Section 1 statement of employment particulars which must be provided on the first day of employment (Employment Rights Act 1996) or at other prescribed times the details of which are still to be confirmed.

A consultation on the content and form of the statement, frequency and manner of communication to new and existing workers ended on 18 December 2025. Details of the requirement will be set out in regulations. However, at the time of writing, there has been no Government response to the consultation and this important requirement comes into effect on 30 October 2026.

Following Parliamentary approval, the Code of Practice was published on 28 July 2026 and will come into force on 25 August 2026 together with the Order. The aim of the Code of Practice is “to promote the improvement of industrial relations and good practice in the conduct of trade union ballots and elections by electronic, or workplace voting means”.

The updated timeline states that electronic and workplace balloting will be introduced for statutory trade union ballots on 25 August 2026. For statutory recognition and derecognition ballots however, electronic balloting will be introduced in 2027.

Note that nothing in the Code of Practice changes the statutory requirements that must be met for statutory trade union ballots.

Comment

As can be seen, there are many changes that employers need to prepare for over the next few months and we will continue to keep you updated through our Employment Rights Act 2025 Hub.

For details of the current consultation on the reform of zero hours contracts, where the consultation period ends on 25 August 2026, see our previous article Zero hours consultation.

Links to updated timeline and final Regulations and Code of Practice:

• Updated implementation timeline
• Code of Practice electronic and workplace balloting
• Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026