Today (30 October 2026) marks another significant milestone in the implementation of the Employment Rights Act 2025, with important changes for employers and HR professionals.
So, what's changing?
Sexual harassment prevention – Employers must now take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, strengthening the existing duty.
Third-party harassment – Employers face new liability for harassment by third parties, including customers, clients and contractors, where they have failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it.
Trade union rights – A new statutory framework gives qualifying trade unions rights to request physical and digital access to workplaces, alongside other changes to trade union protections.
Employers – pay particular attention to the new trade union access rights!
From today, trade unions can make formal requests to access workplaces to communicate with workers.
If your organisation receives an access request, you have just 15 working days to respond. Where the parties agree to negotiate, a further 25-working-day negotiation period applies.
Failure to respond within the required timeframe could result in the matter being referred to the Central Arbitration Committee.
These are relatively short timescales, so it's important that any requests are identified and dealt with promptly.
If a trade union access request lands in your inbox, don't hesitate to get in touch with us. We can help you understand your obligations, respond within the required timeframe and navigate the process of negotiating an access agreement.
What should HR teams be doing now?
This is also a good opportunity to review your harassment policies, workplace risk assessments, training and reporting procedures, alongside preparing for the wider employment law reforms coming in 2027.
For more detail on the changes and what they mean for employers, read our latest article:
https://www.horsfieldmenzies.com/articles/7q0fmhhtf7ffc0rwuwyzujycrszsf3
