Are you ready for the new trade union access rules? If you've never had to deal with a trade union, the new access rules could change that. Workplace access rules come into force on 30 October 2026. They will allow trade unions to request physical or digital access to workplaces to meet, recruit and organise workers. A union does not need to have existing members in your workplace to make a request. If you have 21 or more workers across your business and you cannot agree acce

A Saturday training day. An unpaid induction week before the "real" job starts. Most employers assume this sort of thing is fine, and that training is somehow separate from normal working time.

"Do I actually have to train my staff, or is that just good practice?" It's a question I hear a lot here in Cumbria and further afield, usually after a new starter needs signing off, a piece of equipment changes hands, or a client audit asks for training records that don't quite exist yet.

If an employee uses AI to write something and passes it off as entirely their own work, what's your position on that? If you don't have a policy, you probably don't have a position. And, without a position, you'll struggle to take any disciplinary action that would hold up at a tribunal. What a proportionate AI policy looks like You don't need a 30-page document. A clear one-page policy is enough to start with. It should cover: • Which AI tools are permitted and for

A single tribunal claim can wipe out tens of thousands of pounds and consume months of your time. From January 2027, with the compensation cap being removed, those figures are only going to go up. The vast majority of claims don't start with a dramatic incident. They start with small things that turn into bigger issues. Maybe a concern that got brushed off or a grievance that dragged on. By the time someone contacts ACAS, the window to fix things cheaply closed long bef

In October 2026, two separate legal duties around harassment will change. First, the standard for sexual harassment will upgrade from reasonable steps to "all" reasonable steps. This means that, if an employee of yours goes to tribunal over a sexual harassment claim, you need to be able to demonstrate that there were no further steps you could have reasonably taken to prevent the harassment from happening. The second duty is new and will hold employers directly liable for