What's changing, and when

Employers running a tronc scheme must consult staff on how tips are distributed. It's a new statutory duty.

The deadline to bring most employment tribunal claims extends from three months to six months, giving you longer to act if something's gone wrong at work.

Employers must now take *all* reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work (a higher legal bar than before), and can be held directly liable if you're harassed by a customer, client, contractor, or other third party, even from a single incident.

Your employer must inform you of your right to join a trade union. Independent unions also gain a statutory right to access workplaces with 21 or more workers (physically or digitally) to meet, represent, recruit, or organise staff.

The three-to-six-month tribunal time limit extension that applies from 1 October 2026 to most claims takes effect later for breach of employment contract claims brought in Scotland, from 9 November 2026 instead.

New seafarer protection rules extending pay and working-condition safeguards to seafarers working services with a regular UK connection take effect. Detail to be confirmed and this entry expanded once the site's seafarer-specific guidance content is drafted.

Unfair dismissal protection now kicks in after six months' service, down from two years, and tribunals can award uncapped compensation rather than the previous statutory cap.

Dismissing you and offering to rehire you on worse terms (pay, hours, pensions, or time off) just because you wouldn't agree to the change becomes automatically unfair dismissal, with no minimum length of service needed to claim.

If you work zero-hours or low-hours, you gain the right to a contract reflecting the hours you actually work, reasonable notice of shifts, and compensation if a shift is cancelled or cut short at short notice. Exact commencement date still pending final regulations, expected in this window.

Minimum wage rates rise again on this date, as they do every April. The exact new hourly rates haven't been announced yet (the Low Pay Commission is due to recommend them around October 2026), but the date of the increase is confirmed.

Employers with 250 or more staff must publish their first Equality Action Plan, including at least one gender pay gap action and at least one menopause-related action. The duty becomes mandatory from spring 2027 (subject to secondary legislation), with the first compulsory publication due by this date, based on 2026/27 gender pay gap data.