What rights do union representatives have?

If you are doing union work and your manager is cutting your pay, refusing reasonable time off or threatening your shifts, write down what happened today. Ask your union to put the request and refusal in writing. If you are an employee official of a recognised independent union, qualifying duties and relevant training must get reasonable paid time off. The deadline may already be ticking: most relevant Great Britain claims now have six months minus one day, but a union-related dismissal application for interim relief is due within seven days.

Who qualifies for union rep rights?

For statutory time off, start with recognition. Your employer must recognise an independent union for collective bargaining, and you must be that employer’s employee. An “official” includes someone elected or appointed under union rules to represent members, such as a shop steward. You do not have to be employed by the union.

The employee-only rights in sections 168 to 170 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 do not give you duties leave from a hirer or associated company that does not employ you and recognise your union. A contract or recognition agreement can give you more than the statutory minimum. These provisions do not create a general right to be consulted on every management decision.

Recognition is not needed for three other protections. Workers can challenge anti-union detriment, employees can challenge union-related dismissal, and workers can choose an eligible union companion at a disciplinary or grievance hearing. If you are genuinely self-employed and not a worker, these employment rights do not apply. Your legal employment status matters more than your job title.

Here is the gap: without recognition, an employer avoids these statutory leave duties. Agency and small-site workers can be left without a rep. Workers pay for that loophole; wider anti-union protections still apply.

Paid time off for union duties

An employer must permit an employee who is an official of a recognised independent union to take reasonable paid time off during working hours for duties connected to collective bargaining and consultation. A hospital or care-home rep may negotiate staffing; a hotel-kitchen rep, hours; a warehouse or delivery rep, shifts and pay. The law does not make your preparation time free labour.

That includes negotiating on subjects for which the union is recognised, such as pay, hours and holidays, and performing related functions the employer has agreed you may carry out. It also covers receiving information and taking part in collective redundancy or TUPE consultation, and negotiating certain insolvency-related TUPE variation agreements. Relevant industrial-relations training approved by the TUC or your union also attracts paid time off.

There is no fixed allowance of days. The Acas Code of Practice guides what is reasonable. Your workload, the number of members you represent, urgency and cover arrangements all matter. Give as much notice as you can, explain the purpose and discuss alternatives if the proposed hours cause a genuine problem. A refusal must be judged against your right to reasonable time off, not simply the manager’s preference.

Learning reps and equality reps

Union learning reps have had statutory time-off rights since 2003. If you are an employee member of a recognised independent union appointed or elected to this role, you can take reasonable paid time off to analyse members’ learning needs, advise them, arrange and promote learning, consult the employer and prepare. Relevant training for the role is also covered.

The union must notify your employer in writing of your appointment. It must also confirm that you have sufficient training, or notify the employer that you will receive it. That second route gives you an initial six-month period of entitlement while you train. The union must confirm sufficient training in writing for the entitlement to continue afterwards. Only one pre-training notice is allowed for each employee.

Section 170 also gives employee members of a recognised independent union reasonable unpaid time off to use a learning rep’s services. Access to an equality rep’s services will join that right when the new provisions start. This is different from the rep’s own paid duties and training time.

How pay for time off works

For paid time off, your employer must pay what you would have earned had you worked. If your earnings vary with the work done, section 169 uses average hourly earnings, based on your earnings, comparable employees’ earnings or another reasonable estimate. Contractual pay for the same time counts towards the statutory amount. You do not get paid twice.

Keep the earnings records behind your calculation. If pay owed for qualifying time off disappears from your payslip, that is wage theft as well as a separate breach.

What facilities must your employer provide?

On 1 October 2026, ordinary union officials have no general statutory right to facilities for all their work. Your recognition agreement may provide rooms, noticeboards, secure storage or email access. Separate duties already require appropriate facilities for collective redundancy and TUPE representatives; safety reps have their own facilities rights.

A general duty is scheduled for 30 October 2026 in Great Britain, with that start date now fixed by SI 2026/1065. On request, employers will have to provide reasonable accommodation and facilities for qualifying officials, learning reps and equality reps to do the duties and training covered by their time-off rights. A refusal will be enforceable at an employment tribunal. This does not guarantee every rep a private office.

Acas’s preview guidance gives practical examples, including private meeting space, secure communication tools, noticeboards and access to members across sites or shifts. What is reasonable depends on the work, the organisation’s resources and operational needs. Ask for something specific: a confidential room for member meetings, a lockable cabinet or access to the staff intranet. Agree how confidential records and communications will be kept separate from routine management access.

Safety reps have separate rights

In Great Britain, union-appointed safety reps have rights under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977. Their safety functions are not governed by sections 168 to 170. Employers must allow paid time off during working hours “as shall be necessary” for functions such as inspections, investigating hazards and complaints, dealing with inspectors and attending safety committees. Reasonable training is covered too.

Where employees are not represented by recognised union-appointed safety reps, the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 provide a separate consultation regime, including rights for elected representatives. Northern Ireland has its own corresponding 1979 and 1996 regulations. The 1977 Great Britain regulations are not UK-wide.

Accompanying a colleague at a hearing

Under section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999, a worker invited or required to attend a qualifying disciplinary or grievance hearing can reasonably request one companion. You can choose a union-employed official, an official the union has certified in writing as experienced or trained in accompanying workers, or another of your employer’s workers. Recognition is irrelevant. An eligible union official can come from outside the workplace.

The companion can put and sum up your case, respond to views expressed at the hearing and confer with you. They cannot answer questions for you, speak against your wishes or prevent others explaining their case. If your chosen companion is unavailable, propose a reasonable alternative within five working days after the employer’s proposed date. The employer must postpone to that time.

For example, if the proposed hearing is Monday 12 October 2026, a reasonable alternative on Monday 19 October falls within the five-working-day window. The statutory right concerns qualifying hearings, not every informal conversation or investigation meeting.

A worker accompanying a co-worker has a right to paid time off from their shared employer. Section 10 does not give an outside union official a separate entitlement to paid leave from an unrelated employer; their own union-duties rights or agreement may cover it. Refusing the right to accompaniment or the required postponement can lead to an award of up to two weeks’ pay. With the GB week’s-pay cap of £751 for failures on or after 6 April 2026, the maximum is £1,502. Someone earning less has a lower maximum.

Read the companion rules alongside whether a rep can attend a disciplinary and what makes a procedure fair under the Acas Code.

Protection against anti-union treatment

Section 146 protects workers, a wider group than employees, against detrimental treatment whose sole or main purpose is to prevent or penalise protected union membership, activity or use of union services. It also protects refusal of an unlawful inducement. For activities and services, “appropriate time” means outside working hours, or during working hours with the employer’s consent. Recognition is not a condition.

Dismissal for a protected union reason is automatically unfair under section 152. Dismissal for bringing proceedings or alleging infringement of statutory time-off rights is separately protected by section 104 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Equality-rep rights will join that protection when they start. For a qualifying section 152 dismissal with an effective termination date on or after 6 April 2026, the statutory minimum basic award is £9,157, subject to applicable reductions. That is not a guaranteed total payout.

Employers must not make unlawful offers to buy you out of protected union membership or activity. Offers intended to bypass collective bargaining have a more specific test under section 145B. It covers members of an independent union recognised, or seeking recognition, where acceptance would stop terms being determined by collective agreement and achieving that result is the employer’s sole or main purpose. Not every direct offer is unlawful. The fixed award for a qualifying unlawful offer made on or after 6 April 2026 is £5,993.

A recognised independent union also has a separate right to information needed for collective bargaining, subject to statutory exceptions. Disclosure disputes go to the Central Arbitration Committee. Our guide to what employers must tell unions explains that route.

What to do if your employer refuses

1. Record what happened. Keep your request, the reply, rotas showing lost hours and payslips showing missing pay. Write down the date of each refusal or disadvantage.
2. Involve your union. Ask the branch secretary or a regional official to help. Use the recognition agreement and raise a grievance where appropriate. An internal complaint does not stop the tribunal clock.
3. Notify Acas in time. Most GB claims require early conciliation before you apply to the tribunal. Notification within the original deadline pauses the clock; do not assume it revives a deadline you have missed.
4. Calculate the deadline for your claim. Most GB time-off, accompaniment, detriment and dismissal claims have a limit of six months minus one day where the relevant date is on or after 1 October 2026. Earlier cases retain the old three-month limit. The starting event depends on the claim, and linked incidents need advice. Northern Ireland generally retains three-month limits.
5. After union-related dismissal, ask about interim relief immediately. The application must reach the tribunal within seven days immediately following the effective date of termination. Membership, activity and union-services cases also need a written certificate from an authorised official of the independent union within that period. Do not wait for a grievance or conciliation to finish.

Interim relief is urgent, but not automatic. It can preserve employment or pay until the dismissal claim is decided. The seven-day limit is separate from the ordinary claim deadline. If your effective termination date is Friday 9 October 2026, your application must reach the tribunal by Friday 16 October.

Remedies depend on the breach. Refused time off can bring a declaration and just-and-equitable compensation; unpaid time can bring an order to pay what is owed. Blocked accompaniment can bring up to two weeks’ capped pay. A successful union-dismissal claim can bring reinstatement, re-engagement or compensation. See how to bring a tribunal claim for the procedure. Get advice on your exact deadline rather than relying on the examples alone.

Ask your union branch or regional officer. UNISON organises in care and health; USDAW in retail; Unite in hospitality, logistics and food; GMB and IWGB in cleaning, delivery and warehouses. Acas early conciliation comes before most Great Britain tribunal claims. Citizens Advice and law centres can help. Report minimum-wage underpayment to HMRC, seasonal-agriculture exploitation to GLAA, hazards to HSE, and discrimination to EHRC. None pauses the tribunal deadline.

What has changed, and what is still scheduled?

We distinguish the law already in force from the next stages of the Employment Rights Act 2025. Commencement No. 6 (SI 2026/1065), made 1 October 2026, legally fixes the 30 October start date for the union reforms below. They are still scheduled, not rights you can use yet. Other future dates in the government’s timetable remain subject to parliamentary processes.

1. 18 Feb 2026Industrial-action rules changed

   In force. Most Trade Union Act 2016 restrictions were repealed. Ballot mandates now last 12 months and the industrial-action notice period is 10 days. The 50% turnout requirement remains, alongside the requirement for a majority of votes cast.

2. 6 Apr 2026Recognition rules and award limits changed

   In force. The “likely majority” application test and the 40% support threshold in recognition ballots were removed. The GB week’s-pay cap became £751, the unlawful-inducement award £5,993 and the union-dismissal minimum basic award £9,157.

3. 1 Oct 2026Most tribunal claim periods became six months

   In force for relevant dates on or after this day. Count six months minus one day, then account for early conciliation. Interim relief still has its separate seven-day deadline.

4. 30 Oct 2026Equality reps, facilities, access and recognition reforms start

   Scheduled, not yet in force. SI 2026/1065 fixes this date for sections 59, 60, 64 and 65 and Schedule 6, so far as not already in force. Qualifying equality reps will get paid time-off rights, and qualifying reps will be able to request reasonable facilities. Union workplace-access rights and the remaining recognition and derecognition reforms start too. Transitional rules preserve specified earlier rules for recognition, bargaining-unit and derecognition applications received by the CAC before that date, and specified effects of earlier CAC declarations. Acas’s new advice is currently a preview.

5. 1 Jan 2027Employers must tell workers about the right to join a union

   Scheduled. From 1 January 2027 employers must give new workers the government statement on their right to join a trade union at the start of employment, alongside the written statement of particulars. Workers already employed when the duty starts, and still employed on 5 April 2027, must receive it by that date through direct or indirect methods. The duty then repeats each 5 April, by direct delivery or by keeping the statement accessible with an annual reminder. Detailed guidance is expected in November 2026. The ordinary unfair-dismissal qualifying period is due to fall to six months for dismissals from 1 January 2027. Union-related automatic unfair dismissal already needs no qualifying service.

Electronic and workplace balloting for statutory union ballots became available on 25 August 2026, but abolition of the 50% turnout threshold has not been commenced. Its removal depends on a review of electronic balloting. See what is in force under the 2025 Act for the wider reform timetable.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

For the union-rep rights covered here, Scotland follows the same rules as England and Wales. The Acas Code applies across Great Britain. The six-month tribunal limit applies to these statutory claims in Scotland too. The separate change for Scottish breach-of-contract claims is scheduled for 9 November 2026.

Northern Ireland has separate employment legislation. Time-off rights sit in Articles 92 to 95 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, detriment protection in Article 73, and guidance in the Labour Relations Agency Code. These GB union reforms do not add an equality-rep right or the new general facilities duty there. Claims go to the industrial tribunal, and the relevant limits generally remain three months. Contact the Labour Relations Agency, rather than Acas, about early conciliation. The NI week’s-pay cap is £783 from 6 April 2026, not the GB £751. Start with what differs in Northern Ireland and nidirect’s union time-off guidance.

If you work through an agency, identify your employer first. Recognition by the hirer does not give you union-duties leave from the hirer unless you are its employee. Your own employer must employ you and recognise the union for the employee time-off rights to apply. Paid leave for accompanying a co-worker also depends on the shared-employer relationship. Our agency worker guide explains the underlying status questions.

Questions people ask

Is there a set number of days off for union duties?

No. You are entitled to reasonable time off for qualifying work during working hours. A recognition agreement may set an allowance, but it cannot replace the statutory test with a blanket limit regardless of the duties needed.

Can my employer refuse leave because there is no cover?

A genuine cover problem can affect whether a particular request is reasonable. It does not remove the right altogether. Explain the urgency, propose alternatives and ask for a written reason. Repeated or blanket refusals may breach the duty to permit reasonable time off.

What if my employer does not recognise the union?

You do not have the statutory employee rights to union-duties or union-activities leave under sections 168 to 170. A separate agreement may help. Worker detriment protection, employee dismissal protection and the right to an eligible union companion do not depend on recognition. See how a union gains recognition.

Are union meetings and conferences paid?

Internal union activities generally attract reasonable unpaid time off for employee members of a recognised independent union. A rep attending conference is one example. Qualifying bargaining duties and relevant approved training attract paid leave. Your agreement can provide better terms; check the purpose of the event rather than its name.

Can I be refused promotion because I am a rep?

Withholding promotion to penalise protected union membership or activity can be unlawful detriment. Keep evidence of the decision and the reason given. Recognition is not required, and workers as well as employees have this protection. The timing and purpose of the union activity can matter.

Do redundancy and TUPE reps already have facilities rights?

Yes. Representatives handling collective redundancy consultation or TUPE consultation already have rights to appropriate facilities for that work. These specific rights do not depend on the new general facilities duty scheduled for 30 October 2026.

Sources

1. Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, sections 168 to 173, legislation.gov.uk
2. TULRCA 1992, section 146, detriment protection, legislation.gov.uk
3. TULRCA 1992, section 152, union-related dismissal, legislation.gov.uk
4. TULRCA 1992, section 161, interim relief, legislation.gov.uk
5. TULRCA 1992, section 145B, collective bargaining inducements, legislation.gov.uk
6. Employment Relations Act 1999, section 10, hearing companions, legislation.gov.uk
7. Employment Relations Act 1999, section 11, accompaniment remedies, legislation.gov.uk
8. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 104, asserting statutory rights, legislation.gov.uk
9. Code of Practice on time off for trade union duties and activities, Acas
10. Facilities guidance, preview of rights scheduled for 30 October 2026, Acas
11. Employment tribunal time limits, Acas, updated 1 October 2026
12. Employment Rights Act 2025, section 64, facilities, legislation.gov.uk
13. Employment Rights Act 2025, section 65, equality representatives, legislation.gov.uk
14. Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act timeline, GOV.UK, updated 25 September 2026
15. Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026, legislation.gov.uk
16. Employment Rights Act 2025 commencement and transitional amendment regulations, S.I. 2026/954, legislation.gov.uk
17. Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/1065, regulations 3 to 8, legislation.gov.uk, made 1 October 2026
18. Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977, regulation 4, legislation.gov.uk
19. Time off for trade union duties and activities, nidirect
20. 2026 Northern Ireland award limits, Department for the Economy
21. Trade union membership, UK, 1995 to 2025, Department for Business and Trade, published 28 May 2026
22. Tribunals statistics quarterly: April to June 2026, Ministry of Justice, published 10 September 2026
23. Employment status reform and protections for the self-employed, consultation, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, published 14 October 2026, closes 8 January 2027
24. Commons Votes and Proceedings, 7 September 2026, item 7(3), industrial-action detriment regulations approval, House of Commons
25. Draft Protection Against Detriment (Industrial Action) Regulations 2026, regulation 1, legislation.gov.uk
26. Commons voting record, 14 October 2026, divisions 81 to 83, time-off Code and workplace-access package, UK Parliament
27. Trade union reform: employer guidance, business.gov.uk, updated 25 September 2026
28. Employer Bulletin, October 2026 issue, HMRC, published 21 October 2026
29. Draft Trade Unions (Right to Access Workplaces) Regulations 2026, regulation 1, legislation.gov.uk