Employment Rights Act 2025: what changes in October 2026 and January 2027

What is changing

The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. Its reforms are being implemented in phases. Earlier changes took effect between February and August 2026, including statutory sick pay reforms, day-one paternity and parental leave, and trade union reforms.

The next phase runs from October 2026 to January 2027. Only the employment tribunal time limit change on 1 October 2026 and the unfair dismissal qualifying period change on 1 January 2027 have been fixed in commencement regulations. The other dates are the government's planned dates, which remain subject to parliamentary processes and may change. Most of these changes apply in England, Scotland, and Wales only.

Fire and rehire: automatically unfair dismissal (planned for January 2027)

The government plans to bring in the fire and rehire protections in January 2027, not October 2026. From then, dismissing an employee for refusing a restricted change to their contract — such as a cut in pay, or a change to pension terms or working hours — or in order to re-engage them (or a replacement) on such changed terms, will be automatically unfair dismissal under the Employment Rights Act 2025.

There is a narrow exception: the employer must show the reason for the change was to eliminate, prevent, significantly reduce or mitigate financial difficulties affecting its ability to carry on the business as a going concern, and that it could not reasonably have avoided the change. Even then, the dismissal is not automatically fair: a tribunal must consider any consultation with the employee and their union or representatives, and anything offered in return for agreeing to the change.

There is no qualifying service requirement for these claims. Separately, for dismissals where the effective date of termination is on or after 1 January 2027, the cap on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal is removed.

Third-party harassment liability (planned for 30 October 2026)

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a new obligation on employers not to permit harassment of their employees by third parties — customers, clients, service users, and members of the public. This builds on the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, which introduced a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment from 26 October 2024.

The government's planned date is 30 October 2026. From then, an employer will be treated as permitting third-party harassment if it happens in the course of the employee's employment and the employer failed to take "all reasonable steps" to prevent it. The existing duty to prevent sexual harassment will also be strengthened from "reasonable steps" to "all reasonable steps".

Employers whose staff deal with customers, clients or the public should review anti-harassment policies, staff training, reporting mechanisms, and signage warning third parties that abusive behaviour will not be tolerated.

Employment tribunal time limits (from 1 October 2026)

From 1 October 2026, the time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims is doubled from 3 months to 6 months. This applies to unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing detriment, and most other statutory employment claims. The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/954) bring the change into force.

The longer limit does not apply where the act complained of — or, for unfair dismissal, the effective date of termination — falls before 1 October 2026. For breach of employment contract claims in Scotland, the government's planned date for the change is 9 November 2026.

For employers, this means a longer window of exposure after termination or other workplace events. Check that your retention policy keeps the records you might need to respond to a claim for long enough to cover the longer time limit.

Trade union rights, social care and tipping law

Other measures planned for October 2026 onwards include:

• Right to join a trade union (planned for 30 October 2026) — employers must give workers a written statement that they have the right to join a trade union, at the same time as their written statement of employment particulars.
• Trade union access (planned for 30 October 2026) — strengthened rights for trade unions to access workplaces, and new rights and protections for trade union representatives. The regulations setting out what a union's access request and an employer's response notice must contain (SI 2026/756) come into force on 30 October 2026.
• Trade union recognition (planned for 30 October 2026) — the remaining recognition reforms, including rules on access and unfair practices during recognition and derecognition, and freezing the bargaining unit when an application is received.
• Industrial action protections — protection against detriment for taking industrial action has applied since 18 February 2026. The government plans to extend these protections on 30 October 2026.
• Adult Social Care Negotiating Body (planned for October 2026) — the powers to set up the Negotiating Body have been in force since 6 April 2026. The government plans to bring forward regulations to establish it in England in October 2026.
• Two-tier code (planned for October 2026) — reinstated so that outsourced private sector employees are offered terms and conditions no less favourable than employees transferred from the public sector.
• Tipping law (planned by the end of 2026) — employers must consult workers or their representatives before producing a tipping policy, review the policy at least once every 3 years with further consultation, and share an anonymised summary of the views expressed. These build on the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, in force since 1 October 2024.

Some of these measures (notably third-party harassment detail and trade union access) remain subject to secondary legislation and consultation on detailed implementation. When checked on 15 September 2026, no commencement regulations had been made bringing the workplace access right (section 59 of the Employment Rights Act 2025) fully into force.

What you need to do before October 2026 and January 2027

• Review record retention (by 1 October 2026) — check that you keep the records you might need to respond to a tribunal claim for long enough to cover the longer 6-month time limit.
• Update anti-harassment policies (by 30 October 2026, planned) — extend to cover third-party harassment. Implement training, reporting mechanisms, and risk assessments for customer-facing roles.
• Prepare the trade union rights statement (by 30 October 2026, planned) — be ready to give workers a written statement of their right to join a trade union with their written statement of employment particulars.
• Review tipping policies (by the end of 2026, planned) — if you operate a tipping policy, prepare for the new consultation and review requirements.
• Review dismissal procedures (by January 2027) — ensure fire and rehire is not used except in genuine going-concern financial difficulty, document any financial difficulty thoroughly, and review probation and dismissal processes for the 6-month qualifying period.
• Brief managers — ensure line managers understand the new harassment obligations, dismissal restrictions, and trade union rights, and when each takes effect.

Northern Ireland

Employment law is devolved in Northern Ireland. Most of the Employment Rights Act 2025 does not apply in Northern Ireland, and the changes described here apply in England, Scotland, and Wales, apart from some tribunal time limit changes that also cover industrial tribunals in Northern Ireland (section 152). The Labour Relations Agency gives advice on employment rights and employment relations in Northern Ireland.