Trick or treat? How employers can avoid being spooked by new employment law changes

Four important changes to employment law come into force this month.

Effective from 1 October 2026, the time limit for bringing an Employment Tribunal claim has increased from three months to six months for any acts or dismissals taking effect after 1 October 2026. This means employers may face a longer period of uncertainty before knowing whether an employment issue will result in a claim.

Secondly, from 30 October 2026, employers must take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of their workers. This is a change from the current law, which says the duty is to take ‘reasonable steps’.

To comply with this, employers need to assess where the risks of sexual harassment are within their organisation and then ensure they have an appropriate, targeted policy and steps in place to prevent it. Staff should be given anti-sexual harassment training. Any complaints of sexual harassment should be treated seriously and investigated promptly and fairly.

Thirdly, employers will be liable for harassment of their staff by third parties, for example customers or clients, unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it. This applies from 30 October 2026.

The fourth change also comes into force on 30 October 2026 and may well prove to be the biggest seismic change. The new law allows trade unions to request access to workplaces to recruit members, as well as liaise with existing members, and there are very limited grounds to refuse.

Any organisation with 21 or more employees will have to comply. A failure to allow access can result in a fine of up to £75,000 for a first failure, up to £150,000 for a second failure and up to £500,000 for a third or subsequent failure. The cost of failure is therefore potentially significant.

Is your organisation ready to deal with a request for access? If a trade union official asked one of your managers for access to the workplace to recruit new members, would they recognise the request as part of the new Employment Rights Act (ERA) requirements and refer it to the appropriate person in your organisation, for example HR, or would they refuse on the spot?

Ensuring legal compliance with these new provisions may require employers to review how they deal with these matters within their organisation, including whether existing policies, procedures and training are sufficient.

Visit our Employment Rights Act Hub to keep up to date on the range of employment law changes during 2026 and 2027.