12 minute read | October.30.2026
In this month’s highlights, our team summarises the latest developments in UK employment law and their implications for employers. Catch up on September’s highlights here. All future implementation dates remain subject to parliamentary processes and may change.
Two procedural changes have quietly reshaped the employment tribunal litigation timetable. On 1 December 2025, the Acas early conciliation period was extended from six weeks to 12 weeks. Since 1 October 2026, the time limit for most employment tribunal claims has increased from three to six months.
What Has Changed
The Employment Rights Act 2025 (the 2025 Act) extends the time limit for instituting tribunal claims from three to six months, effective from 1 October 2026. Tribunals retain their discretion to extend time.
The extension is not retrospective. The six-month limit applies only where the ‘relevant date’ falls on or after 1 October 2026. That date is defined on a case-by-case basis:
Separately, the Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 doubled the early conciliation period from six to 12 weeks for any form submitted to Acas on or after 1 December 2025, to relieve pressure on the service and give the parties a fuller opportunity to settle. The Department for Business and Trade indicated that it would review the 12-week period in October 2026, so this is one to watch.
How the Two Periods Stack Up
The periods are cumulative rather than alternative. Notifying Acas ‘stops the clock’ for the duration of early conciliation. A prospective claimant who notified in time has at least one month from receipt of the certificate in which to present their claim.
A claimant who contacts Acas close to the end of the six-month period and then uses the full 12 weeks can present a claim appreciably more than eight months after the events complained of.
Key Takeaways for Employers
The practical warning is a simple one. A claim that would once have arrived within three or four months of a dismissal may now arrive eight or nine months after the event, by which time the dismissing manager may have left, recollections may have faded and documents may have been deleted in the ordinary course.
Employers should review document retention policies and litigation holds so that investigation notes, appeal outcomes, grievance papers and relevant correspondence survive long enough to defend a late claim. Employers should insist on contemporaneous note-taking and a disciplined handover of files when managers move on. The longer conciliation window is also an opportunity to settle before a claim is issued.
The next tranche of the 2025 Act takes effect on 30 October 2026, brought into force by the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026.
The package has two main themes: harassment and trade unions.
Theme 1: Harassment
Section 20 amends the preventative duty in section 40A of the Equality Act 2010 so employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of their employees, rather than simply reasonable steps. That is a materially higher bar than the current standard. Where a harassment claim succeeds, and the employer has failed to comply with the duty, the tribunal may uplift compensation by up to 25%.
Section 21 introduces a new obligation on employers not to permit a third party to harass their employees. An employer ‘permits’ such harassment where the third party harasses the employee in the course of their employment, and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it.
A third party is anyone other than the employer or one of its employees – customers, clients, suppliers, contractors and members of the public – and the provision is not confined to sexual harassment. It covers harassment related to the protected characteristics generally, other than pregnancy and maternity and marriage and civil partnership.
Section 22 also comes into force, allowing the Secretary of State to specify through regulations required steps that employers should take. The steps seek to complement rather than replace the broader duty.
Theme 2: Trade Unions
Section 59 creates a statutory right for independent trade unions to access workplaces to meet, represent, support and communicate with workers, in person or digitally.
The Trade Unions (Right to Access Workplaces) Regulations 2026, also in force on 30 October 2026, provide that access takes place under an access agreement negotiated with the employer. The Central Arbitration Committee is able to decide whether access should be granted and on what terms, where no agreement can be reached.
Section 60 and Schedule 6 bring the remaining recognition measures into effect, including reforms to access and unfair practices during the recognition and derecognition process, and the freezing of the bargaining unit once an application is received.
Union workplace representatives gain strengthened rights to paid time off and facilities, with transitional provision for those who already had the relevant functions for six months or more immediately before 30 October 2026. Workers gain protection from detriment imposed for the sole or main purpose of penalising, preventing or deterring protected industrial action.
Key Takeaways for Employers
As we previously reported, the duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union is not part of this tranche. Although the implementation consultation had contemplated 30 October 2026, it is now intended to come into force on 1 January 2027, with existing workers to receive the statement by 5 April 2027.
On harassment, employers should not assume that existing policies and annual training will satisfy the new standard. The move to all reasonable steps rewards evidence: risk assessments that are actually carried out and revisited, incident logs, visible reporting routes and demonstrable follow-up.
Third-party harassment deserves particular attention in client-facing, hospitality, retail and healthcare settings. Practical steps may include briefing customers on expected behaviour, reviewing venue and supplier arrangements and empowering staff to withdraw from difficult situations.
On the union measures, employers should decide in advance who will handle an access request, and review time-off and facilities arrangements for representatives.
We covered the government’s consultation response of 22 September 2026 in our September update. A written ministerial statement of 13 October 2026 has now confirmed that the new entitlement is planned to come into force in April 2027.
Section 18 of the 2025 Act contains the power to create the right, which will be a day-one right to up to two weeks’ unpaid leave on the loss of a spouse, civil partner or partner, a parent, an adult child or a sibling, expressly extending to step, half, adoptive, kinship care and foster relationships.
Those who experience pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, and their partners, will also be entitled to up to two weeks’ unpaid leave. The leave may be taken flexibly in single days within 56 weeks of the loss. Notice can be given as soon as reasonably practicable for leave taken within the first eight weeks of the loss, with at least one week’s notice required for leave taken thereafter, and there will be no evidence requirements.
Key Takeaways for Employers
Employers should review bereavement and compassionate leave policies against the confirmed scope, which is markedly broader than the existing parental bereavement framework.
Employers should consider whether to enhance the statutory leave by paying salary during some or all of the leave. Because proof of the bereavement cannot be demanded, managers will need training to handle requests sensitively. Absence recording and sickness absence triggers should be reviewed so that bereavement leave is not treated as sickness absence.
The most significant single change in the 2025 Act for day-to-day people management takes effect on 1 January 2027.
What the Legislation Says
Section 25 amends section 108 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 to substitute ‘six months’ for ‘two years’ as the qualifying period for the right not to be unfairly dismissed. It omits section 124, which caps the compensatory award. Schedule 3 reduces the qualifying period for the right to request written reasons for dismissal from two years to six months. It removes it altogether for protection against dismissal by reason of spent convictions. Claims that already have no qualifying period, such as most automatically unfair dismissals, are unaffected.
Employees with six months’ service or more on 1 January 2027 will gain protection immediately, with others acquiring it on reaching six months’ service. The compensatory award cap – currently the lower of £123,543 and 52 weeks’ gross pay – disappears from the same date, with awards continuing to be calculated by reference to actual and projected losses.
Most awards fall well below the present cap, and the method of calculation is unchanged. The removal of the ceiling matters a great deal for high earners and long-tail losses.
Reminder on the Role of HR in Dismissal Decisions
Against that backdrop, the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s (EAT) decision in Shing v University of the Arts London is a useful reminder of where the line falls between HR support and HR influence.
A senior lecturer was summarily dismissed after a student with whom he had had a brief romantic relationship complained. He claimed unfair dismissal on the basis that HR had improperly influenced the dismissing manager, relying on Ramphal v Department for Transport for the proposition that HR advice should be limited to law and procedure.
The EAT rejected the appeal. The binding point in Ramphal is a limited one. If HR, or anyone outside the proper process, puts undue pressure on the decision-maker, a tribunal can weigh that in judging fairness. The weight depends on the facts, and HR involvement does not automatically make a dismissal unfair. HR can properly advise on whether conduct amounts to misconduct or serious misconduct, which helps keep decisions consistent among managers. Here, HR had drafted the dismissal letter only after the manager had decided to dismiss, and there was no undue pressure. A related race discrimination claim, based on two colleagues said to have been treated more leniently, also failed.
Key Takeaways for Employers
From 1 January 2027, the practical protection that the two-year qualifying period has given employers largely disappears. Recruitment and probation processes should be revisited now so performance or conduct concerns are identified and addressed well within the first six months, with clear objectives, documented reviews and honest feedback rather than a box-ticking sign-off.
Dismissal procedures should be audited against the fairness requirements that will now apply to a far larger population of employees. Shing v University of the Arts London confirms that HR can advise on sanction and on the characterisation of misconduct, but the decision must remain the dismissing manager’s own, and advice should be recorded so that its sequence can be explained.
With the award uncapped from the same date, the consequences of getting it wrong – particularly for senior employees – will be materially greater.
Where the Reforms Stand
Under section 28 of the 2025 Act, it will be automatically unfair to dismiss an employee because they did not agree to a ‘restricted variation’ of their contract, unless the employer satisfies a narrow statutory exception relating to serious financial difficulties.
Restricted variations include reductions to pay, changes to total hours, reductions to leave entitlement, changes to pensions and specified changes to shift patterns. It will also be automatically unfair to dismiss employees to replace them with non-employees carrying out substantially the same role. There is no qualifying period for these protections.
Dismissals to achieve an unrestricted variation will not be automatically unfair, but additional procedural hurdles will apply. Tribunals are required to consider matters such as whether the employee and any recognised union were consulted and whether anything was offered in return. The consultation document confirms that these changes will now take effect in March 2027, having previously been expected in January 2027.
Revised Code and the Gap in Cover
The government is consulting until 17 December 2026 on a revised statutory Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement, the 2024 Code requiring updating to reflect the 2025 Act. The timing deserves attention. The 2024 Code is to be revoked in March 2027, when the new protections take effect, but the new Code will not come into force until summer 2027, leaving a gap of several months with no statutory Code in place. The draft Code also adds guidance on the financial difficulties exemption, dealing expressly with the very different forms that financial difficulties take in the private sector, the public sector and within local authorities.
On 22 October 2026, the government published its response to the earlier consultation on the scope of restricted variations. Expenses and benefits in kind will generally be excluded, save for certain travel and accommodation expenses and accommodation provided as a benefit in kind; non-contractual policies and terms subject to a variation clause will remain capable of being changed.
Shift pattern changes between day and night working, and between weekday and weekend working, are included. The regulations are intended to come into force alongside the protections in March 2027.
Key Takeaways for Employers
The delay to March 2027 is breathing space, not a reprieve. Employers contemplating changes to terms and conditions – pay restructuring, harmonisation following an acquisition, changes to hours, shift patterns or pension arrangements – should map those projects against the new timetable and consider whether consultation can realistically be concluded, and agreement reached, before the protections bite.
Consent-based change becomes the only reliable route for restricted variations, which puts a premium on meaningful consultation and on what is offered in exchange. The financial exposure is rising too: compensation awards for unfair dismissal become uncapped from 1 January 2027, and a failure to follow the statutory Code can lead to an uplift of up to 25%. Employers with a view on the draft Code should respond before 17 December 2026.
Mia Stanton contributed to this article.