Extended time limit for bringing employment tribunal claims
The time limit for bringing claims in the Employment Tribunal has increased to six months (from three months). This change will apply to any claim that arose on or after today (1 October 2026). If an employee is relying on a series of acts in order to make their claim, then the relevant date for working out how long they have to bring that claim is the date of the last act in the series. The time limit for claims that arose before today (for example where the date of dismissal was on or before 30 September 2026) will still be three months.
The requirement for ACAS early conciliation is unchanged, as is the length of the early conciliation period at 12 weeks. This means that employers who dismiss an employee today will have to wait for at least nine months to find out if the employee has brought a claim. Our experience is that it can also take employment tribunals quite some time to inform employers that a claim has been made against them. We therefore recommend that employers check, and if needed amend, their policies and processes around the retention of employee and candidate records to ensure that they remain available in the event of a claim. Where possible, employers should also keep up to date contact details for key employees such as managers or members of the HR team who leave employment as they may need to be called on to help defend a claim sometime after they themselves have left.
In the meantime, we wait to see how this change plays out in practice. Although it increases uncertainty for employers it will also give more breathing space for disputes to be settled before an employee needs to bring a claim to protect their position, so could be of benefit in some cases.
Other key employment law changes coming this October
October is a busy month for employment practitioners:
- On 30 October trade unions will be granted a new right to access workplaces (details here: 30 October 2026: Trade union right of access imminent - Stevens & Bolton LLP).
- Employers will be subject to a duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in their workplace and will become liable (in some circumstances) for harassment of their staff by third parties, more on this to follow.
We have put together a series of bitesize webinars and a helpful guide on these and other changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025, which can be accessed here: ERA bitesize webinars – key actions for employers - Stevens & Bolton LLP.
