Employment Rights Act 2025 – October 2026 changes

Published on Aug 18, 2026

Following changes to paternity leave and ordinary parental leave, and sick pay already introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025, further changes will be introduced from October 2026.

The primary changes will be to Harassment and Employment Tribunal time limits. 

With regard to harassment, from October 2026, employers will be liable for harassment from third parties (for example customers or clients), unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it happening. This will apply to all types of harassment. 

The subtle change being imposed concerning sexual harassment is that previously employers only need to take “reasonable steps” to prevent this whereas they will now need to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. 

With regard to limitation period to commence a claim in the Employment Tribunal, from October 2026, the time limit will increase from 3 months to 6 months. Employees will still need to go through Acas early conciliation before issuing a claim though. 

For further information on these changes as well as other changes being introduced in January 2027 or on any other employment related matters, please contact us.