Tracking law changes: Employment Rights Act 2025

Hi, it's Sally here, the CIPD's employment law specialist. It doesn't seem like any time at all since I was recording the CIPD's video about the April Employment Rights Act 2025 changes and now here I am talking about the October changes. So, I'm going to run through the uh the next set of Employment Rights Act 2025 changes coming into effect in October and talk through some of the member resources that are available to support you as the landscape continues to evolve.

So, the 1st of October is the date that the time of submitting employment tribunal claims increases from 3 months to 6 months. This affects pretty much every statutory claim that an employee or a former employee would have. In terms of how it impacts on employers, main issues are going to be things like evidence gathering and record keeping. But it's also going to impact on certainty for employers.

Then the other big date in October is the 30th of October. The trade union changes and changes to the harassment provisions kick in. Then on the union side, unions gain an independent right of access to workplaces for certain activities. The protection from detriment for taking industrial action is extended to a protection against all detriment. 

On the harassment side we have got the strengthening of the preventative duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. That's strengthened to a duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. And we have the introduction of the new duty to prevent harassment based on any of the protected characteristics by third parties. So this is pretty extensive as third parties includes a really wide range of groups, organisations and individuals.

So we understand that there's a lot to get to grips with as these changes come into effect. And as a CIPD member, you can access uh practical items and tools, including explainer videos, checklists and flowcharts, along with trusted insights to help you understand what changes are. But perhaps more importantly, our resources are focused on helping you identify the actions you need to take to implement those changes with confidence in your everyday practice. And we'll continue to develop these, so they'll serve as a go-to toolkit to support you as the changes continue.

You've also got the benefit of our expert advice through helplines, practical learning that you can access through courses and webinars, and this peer support of our fantastic CIPD online community. But taken together, this is just a brilliant package of resources that make it easier to navigate and and implement all of the employment rights act like 2025 changes with confidence.

Which is great because you know  it doesn't stop there. There's more to come. We understand that the tipping changes will be brought into force at some point between now and the end of 2026 and then of course big changes in January 2027 to unfair dismissal and fire and rehire.

So as I say we will continue to develop resources for members and you can also keep up to date with the latest changes through our tracker page where we keep everything together and you can access hub pages to the other areas of law that are covered by the employment rights act.