Right to be accompanied: bring someone to your hearing

Called to a disciplinary or grievance hearing? You do not have to walk in alone. The law gives you the right to bring one person with you, and your employer must let them in and let them speak for you within clear limits.

Who you can bring

The Employment Relations Act 1999 section 10 gives you a choice of three types of companion. Pick one person from this list. Your employer cannot reject them for being awkward, for knowing too much, or for coming from a union you have not joined.

You do not need to be a union member to ask a union official or rep. That surprises many care assistants, kitchen porters and retail staff. If you are not in a union yet, find the union for your job and contact them now: UNISON for care and NHS support, USDAW for shop work, Unite for hospitality and logistics, GMB for warehouses, IWGB for riders and couriers. Ask whether a rep can attend or advise you by phone. Joining gives you advice before and after the hearing.

Which meetings are covered

The right applies to hearings defined in section 13, and the Acas Code of Practice explains how they work in practice. It covers workers, not only employees. Agency staff, zero-hours staff, home workers and Crown staff other than the armed forces or reserves are in. Genuinely self-employed people working for their own clients are out.

A disciplinary hearing counts if it could lead to a formal warning, other disciplinary action, or confirmation of a warning or action. That includes the appeal. A grievance hearing counts if it concerns a duty your employer owes you, under your contract or under law. That also includes the appeal.

Three common meetings sit outside the right. A purely investigatory meeting does not carry the statutory right, though many employers allow a companion under their own procedure. Acas Code paragraph 7 says so directly. Redundancy consultation meetings are outside the Code and outside section 10. Informal chats, welfare check-ins and sickness reviews with no disciplinary risk are not covered unless your policy extends the right.

What your companion can and cannot do

A good companion changes the room. They take notes while you talk, spot when you have missed a point, and keep the pace calm when you are tired after a night shift or a double care run.

By law your companion may put your case and sum it up, respond on your behalf to views expressed in the hearing, and confer with you during the hearing. They may address the hearing. That is active help, not silent presence.

What they may not do is answer questions put to you. The employer can direct questions to you, and your companion cannot answer for you or block you from answering. They also cannot use the rights above in a way that stops your employer explaining the case, or stops anyone else at the hearing from having their say.

Your colleague companion has their own protection. The employer must give them paid time off during working hours to accompany you. Time to prepare is good practice, not a legal must. Acas confirms a companion cannot lawfully be disciplined for supporting you. If a supervisor warns your colleague for “taking sides”, that is detriment and it is unlawful.

How to ask and how to postpone

Lead with a clear written request. A text to your manager can work, but email is better because it proves the date and wording. Name your companion, say who they are, and keep it reasonable and early.

1. Check the letter. Note the date, time, place, allegation or grievance issue, and whether it says you may be accompanied. Save the invite and your contract or disciplinary policy.
2. Name your person. Write: “I wish to be accompanied by [full name], who is [my colleague in X team / a Unite official / a certified USDAW rep]. Please confirm they may attend.” Send it as soon as you can.
3. If they cannot make it, propose a new date fast. Suggest a reasonable alternative within five working days of the original date. Give two options if you can. The employer must postpone to the alternative you propose.
4. Keep proof. Keep copies of every message, the revised invite, minutes, and notes of who said what. If refused, ask for the reason in writing the same day.

Five working days has a legal meaning. Day one is the first working day after the employer proposed. Count Monday to Friday and skip Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays in your part of Great Britain. So if your hearing is set for Thursday 12 March, and there is no bank holiday that week, the window runs Friday 13, Monday 16, Tuesday 17, Wednesday 18, Thursday 19 March. Your alternative must fall no later than Thursday 19 March.

If your employer refuses

When an employer refuses, the cost lands on them. They bar the companion, refuse to postpone, or push ahead while your rep is on a ward shift or a delivery slot. Do not shout. State the right, restate your alternative date, and make them own the breach on paper.

Say in the room: “I have a statutory right to be accompanied under section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999. My companion is [name]. I proposed [date] within five working days. Please postpone as required and confirm your decision in writing.” Then follow up by email within the hour.

A tribunal must order compensation if it finds your employer failed, or threatened to fail, to allow accompaniment, to let your companion speak, or to postpone. The award is up to two weeks’ pay, calculated under Part XIV of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and capped by the statutory week’s pay limit. From 6 April 2026 the GB cap is £751 a week under SI 2026/310, so the maximum accompaniment award in England, Wales and Scotland is £1,502. In Northern Ireland the cap is £783 a week, so the maximum is £1,566.

Time limits changed this month. For a failure or threat on or after 1 October 2026 you have six months less a day from the breach to start Acas early conciliation, plus the conciliation pause. The old three-month limit still applies to breaches before that date. Do not mix the regimes. If your hearing was in September and the refusal happened in October, get advice on which date counts and act on the earlier one.

Protection goes further than money. It is unlawful to suffer detriment for asking for a companion or for acting as one, even for a worker employed by a different employer. Dismissal where the reason or main reason is exercising or supporting this right is automatically unfair with no qualifying service, and interim relief can be sought. You also cannot sign this right away in a generic waiver. Sections 10 to 13 are covered by the contracting-out restrictions, so settlement needs proper independent advice and a valid agreement.

Agency, migrant and disabled workers

Agency workers are expressly covered. Both the agency and the hirer count as the employer for this right, so you can require either to permit accompaniment. Zero-hours status changes nothing. The right turns on worker status, not guaranteed hours. Workers on sponsored visas have the same right: it does not depend on immigration status. If a manager links your request to shifts, sponsorship or a reference, write down the exact words, time and witnesses.

Disabled workers may get more. Under the Equality Act 2010 your employer must make reasonable adjustments to a process that puts you at a substantial disadvantage. That can mean allowing a family member, support worker or advocate as a companion, or adjusting the hearing itself: extra breaks, a quieter room, questions in writing in advance, or a later start after dialysis or medication. What is reasonable depends on the facts. Ask in writing, explain the disadvantage and the fix, and attach any GP or support letter you have. Get advice from Acas, Citizens Advice, a law centre or your union before you agree to attend without the adjustment.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

The core right is unchanged. The Employment Relations Act 1999 sections 10 to 15 still carry the scheme. What has moved is the time limit for claims. Union facility rights are still scheduled. Treat scheduled rights as scheduled, not live.

1. 6 Jan 2026Technical fix to section 10 in force

   Section 64(7) of the Employment Rights Act 2025 corrected a cross-reference in section 10(7) on time off for companions. No change to who you can bring.

2. 6 Apr 2026New week’s pay caps

   Maximum week’s pay rose to £751 in Great Britain and £783 in Northern Ireland. Maximum accompaniment awards are now £1,502 and £1,566.

3. 1 Oct 2026Six-month tribunal limit now in force

   Accompaniment claims under section 11 moved from three months to six months, plus early conciliation. Applies to failures or threats on or after this date.

4. 30 Oct 2026Stronger union facilities, scheduled

   Section 64 rights to reasonable facilities and accommodation for union officials and learning reps, and wider union access protections, are due in force on 30 October 2026 under SI 2026/1065. Relevant if your companion is a union official. Do not rely on it until commenced.