From 1 October 2026, employees will have six months instead of three to bring most tribunal claims, doubling the length of time a business needs to keep evidence and stay alert to a potential claim.
The change applies to discrimination, whistleblowing and Working Time Regulations claims among others, and covers breach of contract claims in England and Wales from the same date.
The equivalent change for breach of contract claims in Scotland follows on 9 November 2026. The longer time limit window only covers claims where the underlying issue happens on or after 1 October 2026; anything before that date stays on the current three-month clock.
The same date brings a separate and, for many businesses, bigger shock, as Right to Work checks are being extended well beyond direct employees.
From 1 October, Right to Work checks must also cover individuals engaged under a worker’s contract and individual sub-contractors, closing a gap that gig economy and supply chain arrangements had sat outside.
Civil penalties for getting it wrong can reach £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and £60,000 per worker for a repeat breach. A new extended liability regime means a business can be penalised even where it doesn’t directly employ the worker, if illegal working occurs further down a subcontracting chain that it’s part of.
Gill McAteer, Director of Employment Law at HR, Employment Law and Health & Safety services provider Citation, said: “Both of these changes land on the same day, and neither of them are small tweaks to existing legislation.
“Employers who have only ever checked the right to work of people on their own payroll now need to look at the RTW arrangements in place for every subcontractor and every level of their supply chain – and ideally audit that those arrangements are actually being followed .
“Add to that the fact employees will now have six months instead of three to bring a claim, the cost of sloppy record-keeping or a badly handled dismissal just went up drastically, because the window for something to come back on you is twice as long.”
A second, separate ERA (Employment Rights Act 2025) package follows on 30 October 2026, covering harassment, and a significant package of trade union reforms that will affect every employer, regardless of whether they currently recognise a union.
The existing duty to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment – in place since October 2024 – is being extended to a duty to take “all reasonable steps”, a noticeably higher bar that puts the emphasis on documented, proactive prevention rather than steps taken after the fact.
Alongside it, a new obligation is being introduced requiring employers to prevent the harassment of their workers by third parties, such as customers, clients or contractors. This means businesses in the hospitality, retail and healthcare sectors will be particularly affected – but also any business with contractors or suppliers on site since “third party” also covers contractors, clients and visitors.
The government has also taken the power to set out evidence-based steps employers should take to prevent sexual harassment, though its own fact sheet confirms these regulations won’t complement the duty until 2027/28. The core “all reasonable steps” obligation is what employers need to meet from 30 October.
Gill added: “Reasonable steps and all reasonable steps sound similar, but they’re judged very differently by a tribunal.
“All reasonable steps means being able to show you looked at every option that was open to you, not just the ones you happened to already have in place. Add third-party harassment into the mix, and any business with customer-facing staff needs to think about protection that goes beyond internal HR policy.”
On the same date, two trade union changes come into force that will impact businesses even where they have no union members and no history of union recognition.
From 30 October, every employer must give each worker a written statement setting out their right to join a trade union. It has to be issued at the start of employment, alongside the worker’s written statement of particulars.
Separately, a new access regime lets trade unions request regular access to workplaces, in person or digitally, to meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers. Employers with 21 or more workers can be brought into this regime; where an employer and a union can’t agree terms between themselves, the Central Arbitration Committee can step in and decide them.
Citation is advising employers to have the following in place ahead of both October dates:
- Map every worker, subcontractor and supply chain arrangement your business relies on, and confirm which ones now fall inside the expanded right to work regime
Most businesses only check right to work for people on their own payroll. From 1 October, that also covers individuals on a worker’s contract and individual sub-contractors – and if you subcontract further down a chain, you may be liable even where you don’t directly engage the person. List everyone who provides labour to your business, not just “employees,” and work out who’s now in scope.
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Review the right to work arrangements in place at every level of your supply chain, not just the checks you run yourself
You need confidence that proper RTW checks are happening for the people you engage directly and for every subcontractor beneath them. That doesn’t mean you have to inspect every individual’s contract yourself, but you need to confirm, and ideally audit, that each subcontractor has its own RTW process and is actually following it. If your onboarding only triggers a check for “employees,” rebuild it to cover workers and sub-contractors too.
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Revisit your sexual harassment risk assessment and ask whether it reflects “all” reasonable steps, not just the steps already in place.
If you did a risk assessment back in 2024 when the “reasonable steps” duty came in, it was built to meet a lower bar. “All reasonable steps” forces businesses to ask a harder question – not just “what have we done?” but “what else could we have done, and why didn’t we?” Go back through it and check whether it still reflects every reasonable option open to your business, not just the ones that were convenient or already budgeted for.
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Extend anti-harassment policies and training to cover harassment by customers, clients and other third parties, not just colleagues.
Most anti-harassment policies are written with colleague-on-colleague conduct in mind. From 30 October, you’re also on the hook for harassment your staff experience from people outside the business, like customers, clients, contractors, and visitors. That means your policy needs to name third parties explicitly, your training needs to cover how staff should report incidents involving a customer or client (not just a colleague), and your managers need a clear process for acting on it.
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Extend anti-harassment policies and training to cover harassment by customers, clients and other third parties, not just colleagues.
From 30 October, you’re also liable for harassment your staff face from people outside the business. Name third parties explicitly in your policy, train staff to report incidents involving a customer or client, and give managers a clear process for acting on it.
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Prepare your written statement of trade union rights and build it into onboarding.
Every worker needs this from 30 October, whether or not you have any union members. The exact content and reissue intervals are still to be confirmed in regulations, so keep an eye out for the details and get your statement ready as soon as it’s available, so it’s set to go out with your induction paperwork from 30 October onwards.
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Check whether your workforce size brings you into the union access regime and have a process ready for handling a request.
At 21 or more workers, a union can request access to your workplace from 30 October. You don’t have to agree to everything asked, but you do need a clear process for responding, and the CAC can set terms if you and the union can’t agree.
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Tighten up record-keeping on grievances and disciplinaries now, given claims will stay live for twice as long once the six-month window applies.
A decision made in October could be challenged next April. Every grievance, dismissal or disciplinary needs a clear paper trail detailing what was raised, what you did, and why – recorded at the time, not reconstructed later.
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