New Rights to Reasonable Facilities for Union Representatives Welcomed

On 30th October 2026, a new statutory duty requiring employers to provide trade union representatives with reasonable accommodation and facilities to carry out their duties has come into effect under the Employment Rights Act 2025.

Until now, the practical support available to union representatives, such as a spare desk, noticeboard, meeting room or email distribution list has often depended on custom, practice, or voluntary negotiation. Now, that support will become a formal legal right. In this blog, we’ll explore what is changing, what employers need to provide and how these changes will affect Community representatives.

What is changing with accommodation and facilities?

Union representatives already have statutory rights to paid time off for trade union duties when their union is recognised. However, the law has been less clear about the physical and digital tools they need to carry out those duties effectively.

This new duty creates a clearer legal requirement: employers must provide union representatives with reasonable accommodation and facilities that are suitable for their role.

The duty applies across several categories of union officials:

• Standard union representatives: supporting representation, consultation, and negotiation.
• Union learning representatives: supporting staff development, learning, and training.
• Union equality representatives: a newly created statutory role focused on promoting fairness and addressing workplace discrimination.

What does “accommodation and facilities” mean?

“Accommodation and facilities” means more than access to a spare office. Modern representation often takes place through digital channels as well as in meeting rooms. The new framework, supported by updated draft Acas Codes of Practice, points to expectations across both physical and digital spaces.

Physical accommodation

• Private meeting spaces: access to confidential, quiet rooms where representatives can meet members to discuss grievances, disciplinary matters or other sensitive workplace issues.
• Secure storage: lockable physical storage or secure digital storage for confidential union records and personal member data. Remember to destroy any physical records once stored digitally, or are no longer being used.
• Desk or workspace: where appropriate, access to a dedicated workstation or quiet hot-desk space.

Digital and technology facilities

• IT access: appropriate access to company Wi-Fi, hardware and printing facilities.
• Communication channels: permission to use internal tools such as company email, intranet spaces or messaging platforms to communicate with members.
• Remote access: the ability to hold secure, private video calls with hybrid or remote staff who cannot meet in person.

What counts as “reasonable” when it comes to accommodation and facilities?

The word “reasonable” is central to the new duty.

What is reasonable for a large national employer may be very different from what is reasonable for a small regional organisation.

When considering whether a request is reasonable, employment tribunals and Acas guidance are likely to look at factors such as:

1. Employer size and resources: whether the organisation has the space, equipment or technical capacity to provide the facility without disproportionate cost.
2. Workforce structure: whether staff are based on one site, spread across branches, working remotely or operating in a hybrid model.
3. Operational impact: whether the request would unreasonably disrupt normal business operations or compromise client confidentiality.
4. Level of union activity: the number of members represented in the bargaining unit and the volume of casework or consultation activity.

Why this change around accommodation and facilities matters for employers

Ignoring or resisting reasonable requests for basic facilities may create both legal and employee-relations risks. If an employer unreasonably refuses adequate facilities, union representatives may be able to bring a claim to an employment tribunal, which could lead to declarations or financial compensation.

Providing reasonable facilities can also support smoother workplace relations, benefitting employers in the long run. This includes:

• Fewer disputes: proper tools and private spaces can help disciplinary, grievance and consultation processes run more efficiently.
• Better information security: secure internal channels are safer than handling sensitive employee information through personal email accounts or unencrypted devices.
• Healthier workplace culture: a constructive approach to facilities can signal transparency, fairness and respect for collective representation.