The Employment Rights Act timeline moved again on 16 July 2026. The Department for Business and Trade published a revised schedule that day. Tribunal claim limits still double from three months to six on 1 October. Harassment and trade union measures shifted back four weeks to 30 October. Fire and rehire rules stay in January 2027.
What changed on 16 July 2026?
The change is narrow. It also catches the measures employers had done most work on.
Until 16 July, two harassment duties were due on 1 October 2026. One was the stronger duty to take all reasonable steps to stop sexual harassment. The other was the new liability for harassment by third parties. Both now land on 30 October 2026.
The trade union package moves with them. From 30 October, employers must tell workers they have the right to join a union. Unions gain a statutory right to enter workplaces to meet, recruit and organise. The rest of the recognition and derecognition reforms start on the same day. Those include freezing the bargaining unit once an application arrives, new protections for union reps, and wider cover against detriment for taking industrial action.
Tipping reform slipped further. It was due in October. The schedule now says only that it will take effect by the end of 2026. That is the vaguest date in the document.
This is the second revision. The government reset the roadmap on 3 February 2026. Fire and rehire limits moved then from October 2026 to January 2027. Advisers working off the July 2025 roadmap have now been wrong twice.
Employment Rights Act timeline: the fixed dates
Three dates carry firm commencement. None is flagged for slippage.
31 August 2026. Electronic and workplace balloting for industrial action begins. The postal-only regime ends.
1 October 2026. The time limit for most tribunal claims rises from three months to six. Breach of contract claims in Scotland follow on 9 November 2026.
30 October 2026. The harassment duties and the trade union package start.
Earlier stages are already live. Statutory sick pay lost its lower earnings limit and waiting days on 6 April 2026. Collective redundancy protective awards doubled that day from 90 to 180 days. The Fair Work Agency opened on 7 April 2026.
What does the six-month tribunal limit change?
More than the diary. The window doubles from three months to six. So does the period in which a dismissal, a grievance or a resignation can turn into a claim.
That reaches settlement strategy directly. A deal signed in month two currently buys near-certainty within weeks. From 1 October it buys certainty against a risk that would have run to month six. Price early settlements on a short limitation window and you are paying for a longer exposure than you think.
Record retention shifts too. Investigation notes, grievance outcomes and dismissal paperwork all need to survive twice as long, and stay easy to find. So do the recollections of the managers who ran the meetings. That is the real problem in most tribunal claims.
The change covers most claims but not all. Check the specific jurisdiction rather than assume six months applies to everything.
Doubling the tribunal time limit on 1 October changes settlement strategy on every dismissal, grievance and resignation from that date. The window in which a claim can land is twice as long. Employers relying on an October harassment deadline gain four extra weeks, but only on the harassment measures. The tribunal change is not moving.
Which measures still wait on regulations?
Several. The government says timings remain subject to parliamentary process. Much of the detail will arrive through secondary legislation made under powers in the Act.
The harassment duty is the clearest case. Regulations are expected to name the steps that count as reasonable. Until they appear, employers face a standard whose content has not been published. So avoid drafting policy wording that ties the firm to a definition the regulations may contradict.
Tipping, the seafarer measures and the Fair Pay Agreement machinery for adult social care sit in the same position.
What lands on 1 January 2027?
The heaviest package in the programme.
The qualifying period for unfair dismissal drops to six months. It bites on dismissals from 1 January 2027, not on employment start dates. Anyone hired from 1 July 2026 therefore clears the threshold on day one of the new regime. The statutory cap on unfair dismissal compensation goes at the same time.
Fire and rehire limits also start. Dismissals meant to force through contract changes become automatically unfair. The exceptions are narrow and cover employers in severe financial difficulty.
Read those two together. A dismissal in early 2027 of an employee with seven months’ service could produce an uncapped award. Probation processes built around a two-year qualifying period will not survive that.
What should employers do before October?
Four things are worth doing now rather than in September.
First, check every date given to a client since February. Anything issued between 3 February and 16 July that names 1 October for harassment duties is wrong.
Second, separate the two October dates in internal guidance. They sit four weeks apart. Running them together is the likeliest error.
Third, audit probation and performance processes against a six-month qualifying period. Work back from 1 July 2026 hires.
Fourth, hold off on final harassment policy wording. Draft the framework now and leave the definitions open until the regulations land.
The Legal Brief set out the legislative programme behind these changes in its King’s Speech 2026 round-up. It covered the same staged switch-on problem in its report on the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force. The pattern repeats: a large Act, a phased start, and a timetable that moves under the people relying on it.
Acas keeps a plain-English summary on its Employment Rights Act 2025 page. Pinsent Masons runs a fuller practitioner timeline in its Out-Law implementation guide.