A significant change to Employment Tribunal time limits takes effect on, 1 October 2026.

For most Employment Tribunal claims, the ordinary time limit has doubled from three months to six months.

The change affects many of the most common employment claims, including unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing detriment, unlawful deductions from wages and working time claims. The legislation also extends time limits across a range of other statutory employment claims. Legislation.gov.uk

When does the new six-month limit apply?

The important point is that the change is not retrospective.

Broadly:

  • where the relevant event occurs on or after 1 October 2026, the new six-month limitation period will generally apply;
  • where the relevant event occurred before 1 October 2026, the previous three-month limitation period will generally continue to apply.

For an unfair dismissal claim, the relevant date will normally be the effective date of termination. For discrimination and many other claims, it will generally be the date of the act complained of or, where there is a qualifying series of acts, the last relevant act in that series. Legislation.gov.uk

In practical terms, ACAS describes the new ordinary deadline as six months less one day from the relevant date. Acas

Why does this matter for employees?

The previous three-month deadline was extremely short. Employees could find themselves having to consider Employment Tribunal proceedings while still pursuing a grievance, appeal or other internal process.

The new period provides substantially more time to obtain advice, understand potential claims, gather evidence and explore whether matters can be resolved without litigation.

However, employees should not treat the change as a reason to delay seeking advice. Limitation can still be complicated, particularly where there are several potential claims or a continuing course of conduct.

There are also important exceptions. For example, the exceptionally short deadline for seeking interim relief in certain dismissal cases remains seven days. Acas

What does it mean for employers?

For employers, the practical consequence is equally significant.

A workplace dispute or dismissal may now remain capable of generating Employment Tribunal proceedings for considerably longer. Employers should therefore be particularly careful about:

Document retention. Relevant emails, Teams/WhatsApp messages, investigation documents, meeting notes and personnel records may become important many months later.

Departing employees and witnesses. Managers and colleagues involved in a decision may have moved on by the time proceedings arrive. Obtaining and preserving appropriate records at the time of a significant employment decision becomes even more important.

Settlement strategy. The longer limitation period may affect the dynamics and timing of negotiations following dismissal, redundancy, grievance and disciplinary processes.

Case management. Employers should not assume that the absence of an ACAS notification or Tribunal claim within three months means that the risk of proceedings has passed.

What about ACAS Early Conciliation?

The existing rules concerning ACAS Early Conciliation continue to apply. Early Conciliation can affect the calculation of the ultimate Tribunal deadline, so limitation should always be calculated carefully rather than simply adding six months to an event. Acas

The key date: 1 October 2026

The transitional provisions are particularly important.

The legislation expressly provides that the new rules do not apply where the relevant date occurred before 1 October 2026. That means that, for a period of time, employment lawyers, employers and employees will effectively be dealing with two limitation regimes at the same time. Legislation.gov.uk

A dismissal on 30 September 2026 and a dismissal on 1 October 2026 can therefore produce very different ordinary limitation periods.

Our view

This is one of the most practically significant changes to Employment Tribunal procedure for many years.

For employees, it provides considerably more time to understand their position and take advice before deciding whether proceedings are necessary.

For employers, it extends the period during which employment disputes can potentially develop into litigation and makes good record keeping, contemporaneous documentation and early strategic advice even more important.

At Herefords Employment Solicitors, we advise both employers and employees on workplace disputes, dismissals, discrimination, whistleblowing, negotiated exits and Employment Tribunal proceedings.

If you are dealing with a workplace dispute or would like advice about how the new time limits affect a particular matter, please contact us.