Employment Law Changes

Unfair Dismissal

From 1 October 2026 the time limit for bringing all employment tribunal claims was changed to 6 months less 1 day. This includes discrimination, unfair dismissal and unlawful deduction claims which previously had 3-month time limits.

Claims where the relevant act (the deduction, dismissal or act of discrimination) occurred after 1 October 2026 will have the new time applied. Any relevant act prior to 1 October 2026 will be subject to the previous time limit.

From 1 January 2027 the current 2-year continuous service rule for unfair dismissal protection will be reduced to 6 months.

That means that anyone employed before 1 July 2026 will instantly qualify for unfair dismissal protection on 1 January 2027.

While the change is not coming into force for a few months you may want to consider whether any action should be taken now for employees who will otherwise obtain protection once January arrives.

The service rules only apply to ordinary unfair dismissal protection, and not to discrimination or automatically unfair dismissal which are day 1 rights. Therefore, you still need to consider the individual circumstances and possible claims before taking any dismissal action even if an employee is yet to reach the continuity of service requirements.

January 2027 will also see the unfair dismissal compensation cap being removed. Unfair dismissal claims are currently capped at the lower of 52 weeks’ pay or £123,543.

Compensation will still be calculated on a compensation basis, and employees will continue to have the obligation to mitigate their losses and the duty to look for alternative work will remain in place. Contributory fault deductions are also unaffected by the changes.

However, the financial implications of a successful unfair dismissal claim could be significantly increased, especially for higher earners.

Strengthened Protection from Harassment Duties

From 30 October 2026 employers will have to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment of their employees.

This will include harassment by third parties. You may therefore need to consider steps you need to take to protect your employees from harassment from customers, suppliers and contractors as well as your own staff. Protection from third party harassment will apply to all protected characteristics (age, disability, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment) not just sexual harassment.

The duty to take all reasonable steps to protect employees extends the existing requirements to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment which come into force 2 years ago.

The existing sexual harassment provisions require reasonable steps to be taken which has now been extended to all reasonable steps.

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission has produced guidance on what reasonable steps would entail which include:

1. Developing an effective anti-harassment policy which is reviewed regularly
2. Engaging with staff to ensure they are aware of the policy, how to report sexual harassment and the consequences of breaching the policy
3. Assessing and taking steps to reduce the risk in your workplace. This would include undertaking a risk assessment to identify risk and considering things such as whether staff work alone or at night, attend external events, whether customers or staff consume alcohol, whether there is a lack of diversity in the workforce, whether staff socialise outside of work, whether staff engage in crude or disrespectful behaviour or if there are particular groups who are vulnerable due to job insecurity or power in balances with those they regularly work with or come into contact with
4. Making make sure you have a reporting system and consider whether an anonymous reporting system would be appropriate
5. Making sure all employees including managers are trained on the policy

However, the test of what constitutes reasonable steps is objective and will depend on a number of factors including the size and resources of the employer, the nature of the working environment, the sector, the risks present in the workplace, the nature of third-party contact, the likely effect of taking a particular action, the cost and potential disruption of taking the action, whether there have been previous incidents of harassment and the action taken, whether those steps appear to have been effective and compliant with any regulatory body.

What is a reasonable step for a multinational organisation is going to be different to the steps expected of a small family business. That said, there is still a duty to take all reasonable steps so no employee can do nothing.

A starting point would be to review your policies and procedure, training and reporting process, completing a risk assessment and putting an action plan in place. Please do let us know if we can help with this.

It is expected the Equalities and Human Rights Commission will provide further guidance on what all reasonable steps should include.

Duty to Inform Workers of their Right to join a Union

From 1 January 2027 all employers will have the duty to inform their workers of their right to join a Trade Union. This duty was due to come into force this month, but the government have pushed back this date.

Employers will need to provide a standardised statement informing employers of their right to join a Union, information about Trade Union functions including if any Unions are recognised by the employer or if a statutory access agreement is in place and information on the Certification Officers list of Trade Unions.

Guidance on the wording of the statement is expected later in the year.

From 1 January 2027 the statement must be provided directly to all new employees with their statement of employment particulars.

Existing employees also need to be made aware of the right and this can be done either directly or indirectly by 5 April 2027. If the information is provided indirectly in a handbook, on a notice board or intranet then the Employer must ensure employees are informed of the statement’s location and be provided with an annual reminder, by 5 April in each subsequent year, confirming the statement is available and where it is located.

In addition, from October 2026 Trade Unions will have greater rights to request access to workplaces. For any employer with over 21 employees or who are part of a group of employers with more than 21 employees, Unions can now request access to the workplace. This applies whether or not the employer recognises a Union.

Accessing a workplace could be physical access to meet with employees or indirect access via email. Employers will need to take reasonable steps to enable access, for example by sending Union communications to their staff or making space available for meetings.

Union access is to enable Union representatives to meet, support, represent, recruit and organise workers and facilitate collective bargaining but not to organise industrial action.

This is a big change for many employers who may not have ever had experience of Trade Unions before. You may therefore need to consider how you will deal with access requests as there are tight time scales once an access request is received.

If you would like any more information or advice on any of these changes or any other HR advice, please get in touch with Louise Keeley and she will be happy to assist you.