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Getting to Grips with The Employment Rights Act

by Simon Kent | Nov 4, 2026

The Employment Rights Act has recently brought in new and challenging issues for HR. Gillian McAteer, director of employment law at Citation warns UK businesses to ensure they’re prepared.

UK Businesses are being warned to make sure they’ve prepared for the latest run of Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA) changes.

Tribunal claim windows are doubling, the bar for preventing sexual harassment is rising sharply, there are new obligations to prevent third party harassment, new rights for trade unions to request access to larger workforces and in separate legislation, significant changes to right to work checks have arrived. These have all fallen within a four-week window.

"The risks of sloppy record-keeping or a badly handled dismissal just went up drastically."

HR and employment law professionals at HR, employment law and health & safety services provider Citation are urging employers not to be caught out by the pace of change. Two separate implementation dates fell in October 2026, and both carry real financial and legal exposure for businesses that haven't prepared.

As from 1 October 2026, employees now have six months instead of three to bring most tribunal claims, doubling the length of time a business needs to keep evidence and stay alert to a potential claim. The change applies to unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing and Working Time Regulations claims among others, and covers breach of contract claims in England and Wales from the same date. The equivalent change for breach of contract claims in Scotland follows on 9 November 2026.

The longer time limit window only applies to claims where the underlying issue happens on or after 1 October 2026; anything before that date stays on the current three-month clock.

Right to work checks

The same date brings a separate and, for many businesses, bigger shock, as Right to Work (RTW) checks are being extended well beyond direct employees.

From 1 October, Right to Work checks must also be carried out where individuals are engaged under a worker's contract or as individual sub-contractors, or where you are operating an online matching service, closing a gap that gig economy and supply chain arrangements had sat outside.

Civil penalties for getting it wrong can reach £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and £60,000 per worker for a repeat breach. A new extended liability regime means a business can be penalised even where it doesn't directly employ the worker, if illegal working occurs further down a subcontracting chain that it's part of or a contract allows an individual to send a substitute to carry out the work.

"Both of these changes land on the same day, and neither of them are small tweaks to existing legislation,” said Gill McAteer, director of employment law at Citation. "Employers who have only ever checked the right to work of people on a contract of employment now need to look at the RTW arrangements in place for every worker and subcontractor they engage from 1 October and review the right to work provisions in the commercial contracts for every level of their contracting chain - and ideally audit that those arrangements are actually being followed.

"Add to that the fact employees will now have six months instead of three to bring a claim, the risks of sloppy record-keeping or a badly handled dismissal just went up drastically, because the window for something to come back on you is twice as long."

Harassment obligations

A further phase of ERA reforms followed on 30 October 2026, covering new harassment obligations for every employer and new rights of access for trade unions affecting businesses with 21 or more workers, regardless of whether they currently recognise a union.

The existing proactive duty to take "reasonable steps" to prevent sexual harassment or risk a 25 per cent increase in a tribunal award - in place since October 2024 - is being extended to a duty to take "all reasonable steps", a noticeably higher bar that emphasises the importance of documented, proactive prevention rather than steps taken after the fact.

Alongside it, a new obligation is being introduced requiring employers to prevent the harassment of their workers by third parties, such as customers, clients or contractors. This means businesses in the hospitality, retail and healthcare sectors will be particularly affected - but also any business where workers come into contact with third parties during the course of their work.

The government has also taken the power to set out evidence-based steps employers should take to prevent sexual harassment, though its own fact sheet confirms these regulations won't complement the duty until 2027/28. The core "all reasonable steps" obligation is what employers need to meet from 30 October.

Gill added: "Reasonable steps and all reasonable steps sound similar, but they're judged very differently by a tribunal.

"All reasonable steps means being able to show you have done every step that is reasonable for your size and sector, not just the ones you happened to already have in place. Add third-party harassment into the mix, and any business where staff come into contact with people who don’t work for the business needs to think about protection that goes well beyond internal HR policy."

On the same date, a new access regime lets trade unions request regular access to businesses who have 21 or more workers, in person or digitally, to meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers. Where an employer and a union can't agree terms between themselves, the Central Arbitration Committee can step in and decide them.

Citation is advising employers to have the following in place:

Map every worker, subcontractor and supply chain arrangement your business relies on, and confirm which ones now fall inside the expanded right to work regime

Most businesses only check right to work for people on their own payroll. From 1 October, that also covers individuals on a worker's contract and individual sub-contractors - and if you subcontract further down a chain, you may be liable even where you don't directly engage the person. If your onboarding only triggers a check for "employees," rebuild it to cover workers and sub-contractors too.

Review the right to work arrangements in place at every level of your supply chain, not just the checks you run yourself

You need confidence that proper RTW checks are happening for the people you engage directly and for every subcontractor beneath them. That doesn't mean you have to inspect every individual's contract yourself, but you need to confirm, and ideally audit, that businesses you sub-contract to have robust RTW processes in place and actually follow them.

Revisit your sexual harassment risk assessment and ask whether it reflects "all" reasonable steps, not just the steps already in place.

If you did a risk assessment back in 2024 when the "reasonable steps" duty came in, it was built to meet a lower bar. "All reasonable steps" forces businesses to ask a harder question - not just "what have we done?" but "what else could we have done, and why didn't we?" Go back through it and check whether it still reflects every reasonable option open to your business, not just the ones that were convenient or already budgeted for.

Extend anti-harassment policies and training to cover harassment by customers, clients and other third parties, not just colleagues.

Most anti-harassment policies are written with colleague-on-colleague conduct in mind. From 30 October, you're also potentially liable for harassment your staff experience from people outside the business, like customers, clients, contractors, and visitors. That means your policy needs to name third parties explicitly, your training needs to cover how staff should report incidents involving a customer or client (not just a colleague), and your managers need a clear process for acting on it.

Check whether your workforce size brings you into the union access regime and have a process ready for handling a request.

At 21 or more workers, a union can request access to your workplace from 30 October. You don't have to agree to everything asked, but you do need a clear process for responding, and the CAC can set terms if you and the union can't agree.

Tighten up record-keeping on grievances and disciplinaries now, given employees now have twice as long to bring a claim

A decision made in October could be challenged next April. Every process needs a clear paper trail detailing what was raised, what you did, and why - recorded at the time, not reconstructed later.

For further guidance on the Employment Rights Act changes and what they mean for your business, visit: https://www.citation.co.uk/employment-rights-act-hub/.

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Getting to Grips with The Employment Rights Act