You run the office at a twenty person firm and you are the nearest thing it has to an HR department. You have never had a tribunal claim and you would like to keep it that way. The Employment Rights Act 2025 has been arriving in pieces since December, and October 2026 is the month the pieces start to touch your business directly. This is what changes under the Employment Rights Act in October 2026, what has been pushed back, and what to do before the end of the month. Dates are taken from the Acas timeline and the Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) Regulations 2026 as they stood in late September 2026.
The tribunal window doubles on 1 October
Until now an employee had three months, less a day, to bring most tribunal claims. From 1 October 2026 that becomes six months. It applies to unfair dismissal, discrimination, unlawful deductions from wages, breach of contract and almost every other claim a tribunal hears. Acas early conciliation still pauses the clock, so in practice a claim can land close to a year after the event.
For you the change is about paper, not policy. A dismissal in November can be challenged the following May, by which time the manager who ran the meeting may have left and the notes may be in a drawer nobody can find. Keep the file for every disciplinary, grievance, flexible working refusal and dismissal in one place, dated, with the letters, the meeting notes and who was in the room. Six years is the sensible retention period, since the Act already requires holiday and working time records to be kept that long from April 2026.
Harassment duties widen on 30 October
Since October 2024 employers have had to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work. From 30 October 2026 the standard rises to all reasonable steps, and employers become liable if they fail to stop their staff being harassed by third parties. Third parties means customers, clients, suppliers, contractors and members of the public. If your receptionist is harassed by a visitor, or your engineer by a client on site, the question a tribunal will ask is what you did to prevent it and what you did when it happened.
All reasonable steps is a high bar and a tribunal will expect evidence. A written policy that names third parties, training that staff can be shown to have attended, a clear way to report a problem, and a record of what happened after each report. A line in the contract with a difficult client saying abuse of your staff ends the relationship is worth having, and worth using.
The Fair Work Agency is already knocking
The Fair Work Agency opened on 7 April 2026 and brought minimum wage enforcement, the employment agency standards inspectorate and the gangmasters licensing authority under one roof. It can inspect, demand records, issue civil penalties and prosecute the worst cases. Its remit widens to statutory sick pay and, from 2027 after consultation, holiday pay. The first year is going where the risk is: minimum wage underpayment, unpaid sick pay, and the way businesses use agency and umbrella labour.
The common failures are dull ones. Deductions for uniforms or equipment that take pay under the minimum wage. Salaried staff whose actual hours push their hourly rate below the legal floor. Sick pay not paid from day one since April. Check three pay slips from different parts of the business against the hours actually worked and you will know within an hour whether there is a problem.
What has moved to 2027
Two changes many employers had pencilled in for October have been put back to 1 January 2027. The qualifying period for unfair dismissal drops from two years to six months on that date, not before, and the new restrictions on dismissing staff to rehire them on worse terms start on the same day. The cap on unfair dismissal compensation goes at the same time. Zero hours and low hours guaranteed hours offers, statutory bereavement leave and the umbrella company rules come later in 2027.
That does not make them next year’s problem. A person you hire in November on a permanent contract will pass six months in May, inside the new rules. Probation periods, review meetings and a written reason for any decision not to keep someone on need to be in place for every hire made from now.
Four things to do before the end of October
Pull the records. One folder per person, every disciplinary, grievance, absence and dismissal document, dated and complete, kept six years.
Rewrite the harassment policy to cover third parties and put every manager through a short training session before 30 October. Keep the attendance list.
Audit pay. Three pay slips per team against real hours, deductions checked, sick pay from day one confirmed.
Fix the hiring process. A written probation period, a review before month five, and a reason on file for any exit.
Where agency staff fit
Temporary staff from an agency are the agency’s workers, not yours, for most of these purposes. The agency carries the employment risk, pays them, deals with sick pay and holiday, and answers to the Fair Work Agency for its own compliance. The Agency Workers Regulations still give agency staff equal pay and conditions after twelve weeks, which we have written about separately, and your duty to protect them from harassment on your premises does not change.
For a small employer facing a busy quarter, that is often the cleanest way to add hands without adding claims. Flamingo Workforce supplies temporary and permanent staff across administration, IT, facilities, health and social care, invoiced weekly for hours worked with no set up fees. If you would like to talk through cover for the months ahead, get in touch.