What changed for UK employees on 1 October 2026: The Employment Rights Act in plain English

On 1 October 2026 the second wave of the Employment Rights Act 2025 came into force. It did not make the front pages, because the headline change, the six-month time limit for tribunal claims, sounds like a detail for lawyers. It is not. It changes the arithmetic of every negotiation between an employee and an employer in the UK, and it lands three weeks before a Budget and three months before the biggest change to unfair dismissal law in a generation.

This post sets out what actually changed on 1 October, what changes on 30 October, what is coming on 1 January 2027, and what was already in force since April. It is written for the employed professional, not the HR department, and it ends with the practical question: what do these dates mean if you are negotiating a pay rise, considering a move, or building an income alongside the job.

The Act in one paragraph

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is being switched on in stages rather than all at once. The first stage arrived on 6 April 2026, the second on 1 October, a third follows on 30 October, the largest on 1 January 2027, and a final group is expected during 2027 with dates still to be confirmed. Acas maintains the authoritative timetable, and the dates below are taken from it as of the day this post was written. Where a date is not yet fixed in regulations, it is described as expected.

1 October: six months to bring a claim

Until 30 September, an employee who believed they had been unfairly dismissed, discriminated against or underpaid had three months less one day from the event to start Acas early conciliation and then bring a claim. It was one of the shortest limitation periods in English law, and it was short by design: most people did not know it existed, and by the time they had taken advice, half of it was gone.

From 1 October the limit is six months for the large majority of claims. The new limit applies where the event complained of happened on or after 1 October 2026, and where a claim relies on a series of events, the last event in the series must fall on or after that date. Breach of contract claims in England and Wales stay at three months; Acas notes a later date, 9 November, for the equivalent change in Scotland.

Why does a limitation period matter to someone who has no intention of suing anyone? Because it changes the employer's risk. A grievance, a poor process or a rushed exit that would have expired quietly at three months now stays open for six. Employers know this, and their lawyers have been telling them since the spring. The practical effect is that well-run organisations become more careful, and careful organisations negotiate rather than impose.

30 October: harassment, third parties and the union letter

Three changes arrive at the end of the month. The duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment, introduced in 2024 as "reasonable steps", becomes a duty to take all reasonable steps, which is a materially higher bar. Employers also become liable for harassment of their staff by third parties, such as customers and clients, unless they can show they took reasonable steps to prevent it. For anyone in a client-facing role, this is the change that gives a complaint about a client's behaviour legal weight it did not have before.

The third change is quieter. From 30 October every employer must tell its workers, in writing, that they have the right to join a trade union, at the start of employment and at regular intervals afterwards. Unions also gain rights of access to workplaces and to reasonable facilities for their representatives. Whether or not you have any interest in joining one, expect a letter, and expect union recruitment in white-collar workplaces that have never seen it.

1 January 2027: the change that alters the market

The largest change is three months away. From 1 January 2027 the qualifying period for an ordinary unfair dismissal claim falls from two years to six months, and the statutory cap on the compensatory award is removed. Today, an employer can dismiss someone with 18 months' service for almost any reason short of discrimination or whistleblowing, provided it pays notice, and face no unfair dismissal claim. From January that stops being true for anyone past six months.

Two second-order effects are worth planning for. First, hiring becomes more cautious: some employers will lengthen probation, tighten it, or hire on fixed terms and through agencies, and the Act's own commencement papers anticipated this. If you are planning a job move in the January window, expect more structured probation and read the probation clause before signing. Second, exits after six months become negotiated exits. Settlement agreements, which were mostly a large-employer instrument, will become common in mid-sized firms, and the checklist in the settlement agreement post becomes relevant to far more people.

Fire and rehire, the practice of dismissing staff and re-engaging them on worse terms, also becomes automatically unfair in most cases from the same date. Anyone who has been through a contract change imposed under threat of dismissal will recognise why this matters.

What was already true since April

It is easy to miss the first stage because it landed before the summer. Since 6 April 2026, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave have been available from the first day of employment rather than after 26 weeks or a year. Statutory sick pay is paid from the first day of illness rather than the fourth, and the lower earnings limit that excluded the lowest paid has gone. Whistleblowing protection now explicitly covers disclosures about sexual harassment. Employers must keep holiday and holiday pay records for six years, which will matter to anyone who suspects they have been underpaid on leave.

The collective redundancy change from April, the doubling of the protective award to 180 days' pay per employee, is covered in the consultation meetings post. It is the reason large employers have run their autumn programmes so carefully.

What to do with these dates

The number that has not changed

I worked for other people for fourteen years and never once read a limitation period. When the environment at Jaguar Land Rover changed in early 2023, with undue pressure and a performance process that felt more political than fair, I found out how little the legal floor does for you while you are standing on it. The rights exist. Using them takes months, costs sleep, and ends, at best, with money in place of a job you no longer have.

What changed my position was not a statute. It was the business I built in the evenings from mid-2024, which covered my family's number by the summer of 2025 and let me leave on my own date. The Act makes the employer's side of the ledger heavier from January, and that is welcome. The employee's side is still written by the employee. Build first, and the dates above become interesting rather than urgent.

This is general information, not legal advice. Commencement dates for the Employment Rights Act 2025 are set by regulations and some are still expected rather than fixed; check Acas and GOV.UK for the current position and take independent advice on your own situation.

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