The UK employment landscape is currently undergoing one of its biggest expansions in a generation, as a result of the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA). So far, ERA has made a number of key changes to areas such as Statutory Sick Pay, whistleblowing and family leave rights, including the introduction of a day one right to paternity and parental leave.
October is fast approaching meaning further changes are set to come into force. We have outlined these upcoming changes and we explore what these changes mean in practical terms, and what employers can do to get ahead.
Extended employment tribunal time limits
As the law currently stands, employees have 3 months to bring most claims to the employment tribunal. From October 2026, this will extend to 6 months. This therefore provides employees with more time to seek advice before pursuing a claim, and for parties to explore alternative resolution beforehand. Employers, however, will be faced with a greater period of uncertainty regarding whether a claim will be brought against them. The Ministry of Justice recently published the annual employment tribunal statistics and the upward trend in the number of new claims is continuing to accelerate, along with a growing backlog. The backlog issue is likely only going to be exacerbated when the employment tribunal time limit is extended.
What can employers do to prepare for this change?
Inevitably, employees have longer to bring a claim. This directly reinforces the importance of employers thoroughly documenting any disciplinary, dismissal or grievance decisions in writing so that potential claims can be readily identified and dealt with. Employers should also make sure to retain these documents for at least 6 months to reflect this extended time limit to place themselves in a strong position for defending potential claims.
Strengthened duty to prevent harassment
The current requirement is that employers have a duty to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment. From October, ERA will strengthen this duty by requiring employers to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent harassment. This vastly expands the duty on employers, meaning the threshold for prevention and protection will be much higher to adhere to.
What are ‘all reasonable steps?’
Unhelpfully, what is to be classed as ‘all reasonable steps’ has not yet been prescribed within legislation, and these regulations are not expected to come into effect until 2027. This means employers will be operating within an information gap until this is rectified.
Despite the lack of current guidance, employers will be required to take, not only the steps listed in the regulations, but also other preventative measures which may be deemed reasonable in the circumstances.
It is likely that what constitutes ‘all reasonable steps’ will depend on the specific circumstances of the employer. For example, their resources, size, sector, working environment etc to determine what was reasonable in the circumstances.
Remedies for non-compliance
Despite the October changes, the remedies for non-compliance remain unchanged.
Employees cannot bring a standalone tribunal claim for an employer’s breach of the duty to take all reasonable steps. Instead, they must first bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal for sexual harassment.
If the claimant is successful and compensation awarded, a breach of the preventative duty will then automatically be investigated. A 25% uplift to compensation may then be awarded if it is found that the employer failed to take all reasonable steps.
Harassment from third parties
The duty also extends to harassment by third parties. For the purposes of ERA, a third party is someone other than the employer or one of its employees. This may therefore include customers, clients, contractors etc.
Importantly, harassment from third parties does not just apply to sexual harassment. It applies to all seven protected characteristics that relate to harassment; which are age, gender reassignment, disability, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
Certain professions, such as hospitality, retail, security services and construction, will inevitably be at greater risk, thus requiring greater protection from their employer. This is likely to pose practical challenges for employers as, generally, there is less control over third parties, and steps employers can take in respect to third parties are much more limited than in relation to their own employees. However, employers will not be penalised for failing to take unworkable or impractical steps.
What should employers be doing ahead of this change?
First and foremost, employers should be updating their anti-harassment policies to explicitly cover third-party conduct.
It may also be useful for employers to undertake risk assessments, engage and train their staff, ensure effective reporting and complaints systems are in place, and evaluating steps taken on an ongoing basis.
New Trade Union Rights
New duty to inform workers of trade union rights
Section 58 of the ERA requires employers to supply workers with a written statement advising them of their right to join a trade union (and remind them regularly thereafter). There was an online consultation which touched on when this written statement should be given (e.g. as part of the employment contract). This consultation has now closed so we expect there to be further discussion regarding this point shortly.
The statement must be given upon the workers commencement of employment.
Future regulations will likely prescribe the information which must be included in the statement as well as the form it should take.
Expanded trade union access to workplaces
Section 59 of the ERA will also introduce the right for qualifying trade unions to access workplaces.
This right, along with the regulations, will enable trade unions and employers to enter into access agreements for union officials to access an employer’s workforce for various purposes.
In short, this allows unions to present an access request to the employer, who may respond. If the employer does not respond or refuses access, the union may apply to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC).
Reasonable accommodation and facilities
There will also be a new requirement to provide reasonable accommodation and facilities for trade union representatives carrying out their duties.
The burden of proof here will lie with the employer, meaning they must show the request was unreasonable.
Practical steps for employers
To sum up, even if a workforce is non-unionised, employers will need to update any onboarding documentation and employee handbooks to include a statement of the right to union membership.
Employers should review their existing facilities agreements and consider their approach to union engagement proactively rather than reactively.
Tipping
The October changes to laws relating to tipping apply to employers in hospitality and other tip-receiving sectors. The Code of Practice on fair and transparent distribution of tips brought into practice in 2024 remains, but the reforms introduced are in addition to this. The Code of Practice can be found here (Code of practice on fair and transparent distribution of tips (HTML version) – GOV.UK).
The change requires employers to consult with their workers or their representatives about their initial written tips policy, and this must represent a genuine consultation.
Employers will be required to formally review their tipping policy at least once every 3 years and provide an anonymised summary of the consultation responses to their employees.
Recommendations for employers
Any employers who operate within a sector where tips are common, should audit their current tipping policy. It is also pertinent that employers review the statutory code of practice on fair distribution and confirm if your policy complies with that code.
It should be noted that the above information is correct at the time of writing. The government has amended its timeline update three times (on 16th July, 7th August and 25th August). Changes to tipping law discussed above is now expected to be delayed from October until ‘by the end of 2026.’
Please get in touch at employment@berrysmith.com if you want to find out more about how we can support you. We also suggest you read our earlier article (accessible here) for more information about the changes coming on 30 October 2026 relating to third party harassment and sexual harassment
Please note the contents of this article do not constitute legal advice.