When three became six

The 1st October 2026 saw a further change to employment law.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 implemented a number of changes which have been phased in during 2026 and will continue to do so in 2027.

As of the 1st October 2026, the deadline for bringing most employment tribunal claims has doubled from three months to six months.

The claims that are covered in this extension are: unfair dismissal, discrimination, detriments, wages, working time, TUPE.

Equal pay and statutory redundancy payment claims were already at six months and there is no extension to these.

Claimants have to entered into ACAS early conciliation which “stops the clock” for up to twelve weeks. This means that limitation to bring a claim can be nine months from dismissal/discriminatory act.

The Tribunals are extremely backlogged at the moment, which means it could be over a year from date of termination/discriminatory act, before we receive the ET1 (claim
form).

If you require any advice in relation to the above, or any other employment/HR issue, please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can email the employment team on employmentlaw@baterwatkinsbrown.com