What employers need to do before October’s changes to employment law 

The Employment Rights Act 2025 has already reshaped parts of the employment landscape this year, but the next major wave of reforms is now also bearing down fast. The Government has set out a timetable for the forthcoming implementation of reform, and with several changes landing at the end of October, businesses have a narrow window to get their policies, training and workplace practices in order. Anyone still treating October as a distant deadline should think again, as a month leaves little room to review a harassment policy, brief managers on new trade union obligations and prepare for a longer tribunal claims window. Particularly if that work has not yet started. 

Harassment prevention duties are about to get tougher 

Since October 2024, employers have been required to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. From 30th October 2026, that bar rises significantly. The duty becomes one of taking all reasonable steps, a standard that expects genuine, proactive prevention work rather than a policy sitting untouched in a staff handbook. Employers who have not reviewed their anti-harassment measures since the 2024 duty came in should treat this as the moment to do so. Measures designed around the existing standard may no longer be sufficient once the strengthened duty takes effect. 

Alongside this sits a change that fills a long-standing gap in the law. Protections against third-party harassment were removed from the statute book back in 2013, and from 30th October 2026 they return in a stronger form. Employers can become liable where an employee is harassed by a customer, client, contractor or member of the public, unless they can show they took all reasonable steps to prevent it. This will matter most in customer-facing sectors such as hospitality, retail and healthcare, where staff interact with the public every day and harassment from third parties has historically fallen into a legal blind spot. The protection is not limited to sexual harassment either. It extends to harassment relating to any protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, which broadens the risk considerably for employers who have not previously had to think about this exposure at all. 

The Act also gives ministers power to make further regulations specifying particular steps employers must take. Those regulations are not expected for some time yet, and will complement rather than replace the broader duty. Employers should not treat their absence as a reason to wait. The duty to take all reasonable steps arrives on 30th October regardless. 

A new landscape for trade unions 

30th October 2026 also marks a significant shift in how employers engage with trade unions. A new duty requires employers to inform workers of their right to join a trade union, which means this information will need to find its way into onboarding materials, staff handbooks and internal communications well before the deadline. Trade unions will also gain strengthened rights of access to workplaces, giving them a firmer footing to engage with staff on site. 

Beyond this, a broader package of trade union reforms comes into effect on the same date. Once a recognition application has been made, the bargaining unit will be frozen, closing off a tactic some employers have previously used to delay or dilute recognition claims. Trade union representatives will gain enhanced rights, and workers will have stronger protection against being subjected to a detriment for taking part in industrial action. 

For businesses with little or no previous experience of trade union activity, these changes are worth thinking through properly rather than filing away. It is worth being clear internally about who would deal with a request for workplace access, and who is authorised to respond if a recognition application arrives. Line managers should understand what they can and cannot say to workers about union membership, since an off-the-cuff comment made in good faith could easily create legal risk under the strengthened protections. A clear route for escalating any union-related query to HR or senior management is also worth having in place before it is needed, rather than worked out in the moment. 

The dates that don’t quite line up with 30th October 

Not everything is arriving on the same day, and it is worth employers keeping the distinctions straight. Electronic workplace balloting comes into force earlier, on 31st August 2026, changing how industrial action ballots can be conducted. Reforms to tipping law, by contrast, have slipped back from their original October slot and are now expected by the end of 2026, giving hospitality and service employers a little more breathing room on that particular issue. 

Separately again, and easily confused with the 30th October measures given how close the dates sit, the extension of Employment Tribunal limitation periods for most claims takes effect on 1st October 2026. The time limit for bringing most claims will double from three months to six. Importantly, this is not retrospective. The longer period applies where the act or event giving rise to the claim falls on or after 1st October, while anything that occurred before that date remains subject to the existing three-month limit. For employers, the practical effect is that a workplace dispute that appears to have gone quiet may remain capable of becoming a claim for considerably longer than businesses are used to. Investigation notes, grievance and disciplinary records, and correspondence around dismissals should be accurate, accessible and retained with that longer window in mind. 

What employers should be doing now 

With several of these reforms landing within weeks of each other, September is the moment to act rather than to keep monitoring the position. Harassment policies need updating to reflect the new standard, and cannot simply be reissued unchanged. Staff and managers need training that reflects both the strengthened prevention duty and the new third-party liability.  

Communications to workers need to include the new trade union information duty. Record-keeping practices need to be reviewed with the longer tribunal window in mind, and anyone with responsibility for industrial relations should be clear on how the business would respond to increased union activity. 

None of this needs to be complicated, but it does need to start now. Employers who leave it until the final week of October are likely to find themselves reacting to problems rather than having prevented them. 

Coodes’ employment team can help employers review their current policies and practices against these incoming duties, and put a practical plan in place before the October deadlines arrive. 

About the Author: Steph Marsh is the Head of the Employment Law team at Coodes Solicitors. She has extensive experience in supporting both employers and employees on contentious and non-contentious matters, particularly surrounding discrimination issues, redundancy situations and data protection law. 

Get in touch: steph.marsh@coodes.co.uk  01579 324 017