Government responds to consultation on statement of trade union rights

Background

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a new duty on employers to give workers a written statement informing them of their right to join a trade union. The government commenced a consultation on 23 October 2025 to gather views on how the new duty should work in practice.

As we set out in our previous article, the consultation focused on the following questions in the consultation: what form the statement should take; what content should be included in the statement; the manner in which the statement should be delivered; and the frequency of which the statement must be reissued following the commencement of employment.

Key points from the government's response:

Form

The government will provide a standardised statement for employers to issue. Employers must use it and may not change its wording, except to add specified workplace information. The government did not include the statement wording within its response and has not yet stated when that standard statement will be published.

Content

The standard statement will contain clear and neutral information about the right to join a trade union. It will include:

1. A brief explanation of the functions of a trade union.
2. Information about recognised trade unions and statutory access agreements, including contact details. This includes information for multiple sites and individual recognition arrangements.
3. A link to the Certification Officer’s (the regulator of trade unions) list of trade unions in the statement, or a copy of the list alongside it. The official list of trade unions may be accessed here.
4. A summary of statutory rights relating to union membership.

Employers will not be permitted to insert their own commentary into the standard statement. If they wish to provide additional context, they must do so in a separate communication.

Manner

Employers must give the statement directly to each new worker at the same time as the written statement of employment particulars (also known as a section 1 statement). There are various timeframes for particular information in a section 1 statement to be provided, however given most of the particulars must be provided by day one of employment, we expect the statement of trade union rights to be the same.

The government’s response does not prescribe one method of communicating the statement to new workers, other than it must be "direct", and may be via email, in person, or by post.

For existing workers, employers may deliver the statement directly or make it available indirectly, for example on an intranet. If they use an indirect method, the statement must remain reasonably accessible. Employers must tell workers where it is and send an annual reminder explaining that it remains available and where to find it. They must also notify workers directly if its location changes.

Frequency

An employer using direct delivery for existing workers must provide the statement annually by 5 April. An employer using indirect delivery must keep the statement continuously and reasonably available and issue an annual reminder stating where workers can find it.

Employers must reissue the statement within one month if the identity of a union with recognition or a statutory access agreement changes.

What this means for employers

The duty will be applicable to all workers, and if it is not complied with, an employment tribunal may award between two and four weeks' pay per worker. While this only applies if the worker is successful with another claim, the potential consequences may be notable, especially for large, unionised employers.

Employers can begin planning now, but cannot finalise compliance arrangements until the government publishes the standard statement. In the meantime, they should determine how the statement will be delivered for new workers, and how the annual updating exercise for existing workers will be managed.

Unionised employers should start collating information regarding recognised unions and statutory access arrangements. They should prepare a document setting out which unions are recognised in each location, which workers (by grade or group etc.) those unions represent, and the statutory access arrangements for each union. The contact details of each union, as opposed to an individual, need to be recorded to save the administrative burden of continuously updating contact details.

Unionised employers should also establish a process to identify relevant changes to union recognition and statutory access arrangements promptly because changes will trigger the requirement to reissue the statement within one month.