The staged implementation of the Employment Rights Act 2025 (the “ERA 2025”) reaches a significant point on 30 October 2026, when substantive changes relating to harassment and trade unions take effect. In the below article we summarise the key changes employers need to be aware of and the steps that can be taken in response to these changes.

1 October 2026

Extension of employment tribunal time limits – the time limit for claimants to present the majority of employment tribunal claims doubled to six months where the date of the less favourable treatment, detriment or other infringement falls on or after 1 October 2026.

Steps to be taken by employers: This change, implications and the steps able to be taken by employers are considered in our earlier article.

30 October 2026

The changes below will take effect from 30 October 2026: 

1. Trade union right of access 

• Independent trade unions will have the right to access workplaces, both physically and digitally, for permitted purposes (which do not include organising industrial action), with employers having 15 working days to respond to an access request. 

Steps to be taken by employers: How this right will work in practice and key considerations for employers who receive an access request are addressed in our earlier article.

2. Duty to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment and power to make regulations specifying evidence-based steps which an employer must take to prevent sexual harassment 

• Employers will be under a duty to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of its employees during the course of their employment – a strengthening of the current “reasonable steps” duty, which has been in place since October 2024. While an employee will not be able to bring a standalone claim alleging that an employer has breached the duty, if the employee’s underlying claim of sexual harassment against their employer is successful, any compensation awarded by an employment tribunal can be increased by 25%.
• On 30 October 2026 the power for the government to make regulations specifying evidence-based steps which an employer must take to prevent sexual harassment will come into force. However, the government has confirmed that these regulations will be made in 2027/2028. 

Steps to be taken by employers: The operation of the enhanced preventative duty, considerations for employers and the steps which can be taken to facilitate compliance with the duty are addressed in our earlier article.

3. Employer liability for third-party harassment

• In potentially one of the most significant reforms under the ERA 2025, employer liability for third party harassment will be re-introduced. Employers will be liable for third-party harassment in relation to all protected characteristics (save for pregnancy and maternity and marriage and civil partnership) – the reforms are not limited to sexual harassment only.
• Persons who will be classed as ‘third parties’ include clients, customers, suppliers, visitors, patients, students, and members of the public.  
• The reforms provide that an employer will have permitted a third party to harass an employee if both:
  • the employee is harassed in the course of their employment; and
  • the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the third party from harassing them.

Steps to be taken by employers: the operation of the new third-party harassment regime, key considerations for employers and steps which may be taken to prevent third-party harassment are addressed in our earlier article.

4. New rights and protections for trade union representatives

• Employers will be required to provide:
  • trade union officials and learning representatives (who currently have the right to paid time off during working hours to carry out trade union duties) with the right to access accommodation and other facilities (as is reasonable in all the circumstances); and
  • trade union equality representatives with ‘reasonable’ paid time off during their working hours for specified purposes.
• When determining a trade union official’s or equality representative’s request for time off, the employer will be required to show that the amount of time off requested was not reasonable.  

Steps to be taken by employers: Employers with a unionised workforce to take note of these new rights and protections. 

5. Unfair practices in the trade union recognition and derecognition processes 

• The Central Arbitration Committee’s (CAC) Code of Practice: Access and unfair practices during recognition and derecognition ballots (the “Code”) has been updated and will apply to the entire recognition and derecognition process, not just the ballot stage.
• As a result, there will be:
  • a 20-working day negotiation period for the employer and union to agree on arrangements for the union to access the workers during a statutory recognition ballot process; and
  • a ‘cap’ on an employer increasing the number of workers in a proposed bargaining unit once a union’s statutory recognition application has been received.
• The Code’s application will also be extended to provide that the unfair practices are prohibited during the entire recognition process. The updated Code also contains a revised process for complaining about unfair practices during recognition and derecognition ballots. 

Steps to be taken by employers: Employers to be aware of the updated Code and changes to the process.

6. Protection against detriment for taking industrial action

• Employees who are members of a trade union will be protected from all forms of detriment (i.e. less favourable treatment, short of dismissal) intended to prevent, deter or penalise them from taking part in protected industrial action.
• An employer will be able to defend a claim if it can show that the main or sole purpose on which it acted (or failed to act) was not on the grounds of protected industrial action. 

Steps to be taken by employers: When taking action in close proximity to industrial action (such as disciplinary performance, absence management or denial of training or career progression), document the decision making process to evidence that the decision is unrelated to the employee’s participation in industrial action. 

Other reforms to note 

• Duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union: while this change was initially scheduled to come into force on 30 October 2026, the government has confirmed it will now take effect on 1 January 2027. Who this duty will apply to, and how it will operate in practice, has been addressed in our earlier article. 
• Re-instatement of “two-tier workforce code” in public sector outsourcing: similarly, while this reform was initially scheduled to come into force on 30 October 2026, it has now been removed from the government’s ERA 2025 implementation timeline. It is currently unclear when this reform is intended to come into effect. 

How can we help?

If you would like to discuss how our team of experienced employment lawyers can support your organisation, please get in touch. You can also find further resources on all things ERA 2025 on our ERA 2025 hub.