Make Work Pay: draft Code of Practice on trade union right of access – Acas response

This is the Acas Executive response to the Make Work Pay: draft Code of Practice on trade union right of access consultation.

Opening statement

1. Acas welcomes the opportunity to respond to the government's Make Work Pay: draft Code of Practice on trade union right of access consultation.
2. The core policy rationale for the new right of access – strengthening industrial relations and extending collective bargaining coverage – aligns closely with Acas duties and strategic agenda. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) research on collective bargaining emphasises Acas's own view that well-functioning collective bargaining arrangements can have a positive impact on workplaces, the economy and the wider industrial relations landscape.
3. The Code under consultation will have an essential role in equipping users with clear and accessible guidance on the legal framework and good practice. It will also set the tone for positive, voluntary dialogue and the broader principles of good industrial relations: balancing interests; collaboration and partnership; and proportionality.
4. As the new independent right of access is likely to lead to formal engagement between some employers and trade unions for the first time, an effective Code of Practice is all the more important to support employers and trade unions to address the challenges and realise the benefits of the new right to access workplaces.
5. Acas outlines key conditions for success for the Code of Practice in the paragraphs below.

Balance rights and responsibilities

6. We welcome the core principles at the heart of the right of trade unions to access workplaces being laid out by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) in the Code, namely that trade unions should have access to workers, but also that employers should not have to take unreasonable steps to facilitate access.
7. While the right of access is a positive right for trade unions and the starting assumption in the law is that access will be granted in normal circumstances, there is still an onus on trade unions to work positively with employers to achieve this end goal. At the same time, we also recommend clarifying for employers that when access is agreed it should be meaningful, regular and could be physical or digital.

Promote voluntary resolution over statutory

8. Acas welcomes the Department for Business and Trade encouraging unions and employers 'to continue to use existing voluntary access arrangements or agree new access arrangements on a voluntary basis outside the statutory process'. The Code will set the parameters for unions and employers to work together, and we encourage the Department for Business and Trade to continue to promote a problem-solving – rather than procedural – approach, which we firmly believe will benefit all parties.
9. We also welcome the draft Code making direct reference to Acas's conciliation services for instances where an employer and a union fail to agree access arrangements voluntarily. In 2024 to 2025 Acas conciliation services handled 522 disputes between trade unions and employers, and in 93% of cases we supported the parties to reach an agreement or make progress towards one.
10. As identified in our research [estimating the economic impact of Acas's services], Acas interventions in collective conflict are most effective when made early, as opposed to entering negotiations later when positions are entrenched. We look forward to continuing official-to-official engagement on the precise wording of the Code in this regard.

Set proportionate expectations

11. Acas strongly recommends that the Department for Business and Trade user test the Code with different-sized employers and trade unions to ensure it is fit for purpose and sets proportionate expectations. According to the Central Arbitration Committee's 2024 to 2025 annual report (PDF, 6MB), around 2 in 5 statutory recognition applications are in organisations with fewer than 200 employees, where experience and capacity for collective employment relations are more likely to be limited. We expect that trade union access applications are likely to be significantly above this figure.
12. Acas supports the inclusion of the section 'How the Central Arbitration Committee takes decisions on whether access takes place or not'. As a new right that will involve many employers who have not worked with trade unions before, how access principles and guidance are worded and explained will be crucial as it will shape the minimum standards and expectations. However, we recommend that the Code also sets out clearer substantive factors for parties (and the Central Arbitration Committee) to consider regarding 'unreasonable interference'. This might make clear that access itself does not constitute an unreasonable interference and that it is unlikely to be practicable without some administrative effort by the employer. Conversely, the Department for Business and Trade should also set out the union's duty to consider the real business concerns of the employer, taking into account its size, resources, security, organisational structure, and operations.
13. We welcome the Department for Business and Trade producing standardised access request and response templates that trade unions and employers are encouraged to use. Templates are important to build familiarity and support understanding and information sharing. Well-structured templates can also support good industrial relations practice by pointing users towards important issues to get right. This is particularly the case for small and medium employers, many of whom will have no previous experience of working with trade unions. With this in mind, we recommend that the Department for Business and Trade clearly connects the templates to the relevant statutory obligations and includes a clear summary with links to online guidance to help raise awareness among employers and reduce misunderstandings and delays.

Support digital access

14. One area that we would encourage the Department for Business and Trade to explore more is the specific challenges and benefits of digital access. We believe digital access is an important complement to physical access, which can sometimes be restrictive to unions, employers and workers. However, while the potential benefits of digital access are clear and are addressed in the draft Code, we recommend that the scope for unfair digital practices (and how to mitigate them) should be addressed in far more detail in the final Code.
15. As a new and untested practice, it will be important to offer clear guidance to Code users which reflects the realities of modern workplaces but also accounts for the speed at which digital platforms and methods are moving. We therefore recommend that the Code is informed by those with digital expertise and with experience of digital campaigning, whilst keeping in mind that advice should be accessible to non-experts.