As of 1 October 2026, the time limit for most employment tribunal claims has doubled from 3 months to 6 months.
This means that an employee can now file a complaint against you for something that happened up to 6 months ago.
The old 3-month deadline quietly protected employers for years. A significant number of employees simply missed it. They didn’t get legal advice quickly enough or they ran out of time while still trying to sort things internally.
For you as an employer, that protection has now gone.
The government estimates that the Employment Rights Act reforms will increase tribunal claims by 17%. As HR consultants, we think that the real figure will be significantly higher.
What’s changed
From 1 October 2026, the time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims increased from 3 months to 6 months. This covers unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, harassment, unlawful deductions from wages and working time claims, among others.
The extended time limit applies to any act or dismissal that takes place on or after 1 October 2026. Anything before that date still falls under the old 3-month rule.
Where a claim involves a series of connected acts, the extended limit applies if the last act in the series falls on or after 1 October.
How the longer window changes everyday risk
Under the old rules, if nothing landed within 3 months of a dismissal or incident, you could reasonably assume it wasn’t going to.
6 months changes that completely.
An employee dismissed in October can now bring a claim in April. A grievance raised in November can turn into a tribunal claim the following May. Issues you thought were done with can come back months later, with a solicitor attached.
The extra time also gives employees more room to take legal advice and build their case properly. Claims that arrive after months of preparation are harder to defend than ones filed in a rush at the old deadline.
What your processes need to look like from now
If your internal processes were already solid, the time limit extension raises the stakes on your existing obligations. If they weren’t solid, this is where it catches up with you.
You need:
- Written records of every disciplinary conversation, performance discussion and grievance outcome
- A disciplinary and grievance procedure that follows the Acas Code of Practice
- Consistent application of your policies across all employees
- Probation reviews that are actually happening and documented
- A clear paper trail showing how and why decisions were made
Documentation is the single biggest factor in defending a tribunal claim. If you can’t show what happened and why 6 months after the event, you could lose the claim on paperwork alone. That is genuinely how these cases go.
You should also review how long you keep records. HR files and correspondence need to be stored for longer than you may currently be keeping them. If the evidence doesn’t exist when a claim arrives, you can’t use it.
Your managers need to know about this
Your managers are making the day-to-day decisions about performance and conduct. Those are the decisions that end up at tribunal.
If they’re making people decisions without documenting them properly, the extended time limit makes every one of those decisions riskier. Have a conversation with them now about what needs to change.
How we can help
We carry out process and documentation reviews to make sure that your business meets the standard the tribunal expects. This covers your disciplinary and grievance procedures and your record-keeping practices.
If your processes aren’t ready for the new time limit, get in touch now. It’s far cheaper to sort this before a claim arrives than after one does.