The Employment Rights Act 2025: October 2026 changes

A number of important reforms under the Employment Rights Act 2025 come into force in October 2026, including extended time limits for bringing employment tribunal claims, an obligation to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and a new right of access to workplaces for trade unions.

Tribunal time limits: 1 October 2026

Employment tribunal time-limits were extended from three to six months from 1 October 2026. For breach of contract claims in Scotland this change will take effect from 9 November 2026.

Ensure that relevant staff are aware of the change and that any process in place for diarising end of time-limits is adjusted. Audit record keeping and retention policies to ensure you retain information that may be required to defend claims. For key staff who make employment decisions, consider including a contractual duty to co-operate with tribunal claims after employment ends.

Sexual harassment: 30 October 2026

Since October 2024 there has been a positive obligation on all employers to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of employees in the course of their employment. In the event of a breach there is no freestanding right to make a claim but the Equality and Human Rights Commission can take enforcement action even without an incident of sexual harassment, and tribunals can uplift compensation by up to 25% if an employee brings a successful sexual harassment claim.

From 30 October 2026 this is being extended to a duty to take all reasonable steps. What constitutes all reasonable steps will depend on the specific circumstances, such as the employer’s size, sector, working environment, resources and other relevant facts. The power to introduce regulations setting out examples of reasonable steps will be introduced from 30 October 2026. The first regulations are expected in 2027/28 and may include carrying out risk assessments, publishing action plans or policies, steps relating to the reporting of sexual harassment and steps relating to the handling of complaints.

Including the word all signals a much higher compliance threshold. Consider the EHRC technical guidance and revisit your risk assessments and action plans.

Third party harassment: 30 October 2026

Employer liability for third-party harassment in relation to age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation and to sexual harassment will be reintroduced. An employer will be liable if a third party, such as a customer or client, harasses an employee in the course of their employment and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent that harassment.

Risk assessments and action plans to fulfil the duty to prevent sexual harassment may already cover additional protected characteristics and third parties, however, these should be reviewed to consider whether any further reasonable steps are required e.g. communications and contractual terms with third parties to raise awareness of your policies, clear protocols for dealing with incidents. Think about any particular areas of risk e.g. work-related social events, shared premises, customer facing roles.

Trade union reform: 30 October 2026

Trade union reform under the Employment Rights Act 2025 is being phased in between December 2025 and 2027. In brief, the changes coming into force from 30 October 2026 are:

New right of access to workplaces. Qualifying trade unions will be able to request physical and digital access to meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers and/or to facilitate collective bargaining, but not to organise industrial action. Parties are encouraged to use existing voluntary arrangements or agree new ones but, if this is not possible, there is a statutory process to follow. If the union and the employer cannot agree terms of access, it will be up to the Central Arbitration Committee (‘CAC’) to determine. Find out more in The Employment Rights Act 2025: new trade union right of access to workplaces.
Extended right of access during statutory recognition process. From 30 October 2026 the duty on an employer to allow a union reasonable access to workers in the proposed bargaining unit will apply once the CAC has accepted a statutory recognition application and the application remains in progress (i.e. at an earlier stage in the process). There will also be an obligation on the employer to provide, within five days of receiving notification of an application for recognition, the name and date of birth of each ‘relevant worker’ and the category to which they belong (and to update the CAC if this information changes).
Increased regulation of unfair practices during statutory recognition process. Unfair practices concern actions taken by either the employer or the union to improperly influence the outcome of a statutory recognition or derecognition ballot. The prohibition on unfair practices will apply from when the CAC notifies the parties that they have accepted a recognition application (i.e. from an earlier point than at present). Employers will also be restricted from increasing the numbers in a bargaining unit in order to dilute membership / support.
Protection against detriment for workers who have participated in or intended to participate in protected industrial action will be introduced. Regulations confirm that all detriments are prohibited and that compensation for successful claims can be increased or decreased by 25% to reflect any failure to follow the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.
Expanded rights for certain trade union representatives. The right to paid time off will be extended to union equality representatives from 30 October 2026. There will also be a new obligation on employers, at the request of the trade union representative exercising the right to time off (trade union official, learning representative or equality representative), to provide such accommodation and other facilities for the purposes for which the time off is taken as is reasonable in the circumstances, taking into account the ACAS Code of Practice on time off for trade union duties and activities.

The new duty on employers to provide workers with a statement of trade union rights (at the outset of employment and at prescribed intervals thereafter) had also been scheduled for October 2026 but implementation has been delayed until January 2027.

Read our earlier blog in which we answer some of the questions which arose during our recent webinar on 'Trade unions – key changes and actions for employers'.

Workbox by Brodies

Users of Workbox by Brodies, our award-winning HR and employment law site, are able to stay on top of all the recent and forthcoming employment and immigration changes. As well as our HR to-do list and Employment Rights Act 2025: Preparatory Steps checklist, a subscription provides access to practical guidance pages and templates including in relation to: