Employment laws coming into effect in October

This year, a number of different employment laws have come into effect, following the Employment Rights Act 2025. This has been a huge overhaul of existing employment law, bringing a number of different reforms that are likely to affect your business. These include changes to statutory sick and holiday pay, as well as a consolidation of employment enforcement services and changes to Trade Unions.

There are more employment laws coming into effect in October, some of which impact all businesses, and some which are specific to certain industries. Here are a few of the legal changes which are expected to impact all organisations.

From 1st October, employers’ liability around harassment is changing. The time limit for employees bringing an Employment Tribunal is increasing, from three months, to six months, allowing more time for employees to bring a claim after a one-off incident or continual pattern of behaviour.

From 30th October, employers will now also be liable for harassment of their employees by anyone who comes in contact with their business, including customers, clients, service users, suppliers and other third parties. All protected characteristics noted in the Equality Act 2010 are also included in this liability, meaning that the employer is liable for any comments or discrimination on the basis of a person’s identity. Employers are expected to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment from occurring. 

The laws around employer’s requirements to prevent sexual harassment are also changing. From the 30th October, the law now states that ‘all reasonable steps’ need to be taken to prevent sexual harassment, rather than the previous lanaguage of ‘reasonable steps’.

According to the government’s factsheet, this includes, ‘anti-harassment policies, undertaking risk assessments, engaging and training staff, ensuring effective reporting and complaints systems are in place, and evaluating steps taken on an ongoing basis’. Whether a business has taken ‘all reasonable steps’ will ‘vary from employer to employee and will depend on factors such as…employer’s size, the sector in which it operates, the working environment and its resources.’

Businesses need to prepare by ensuring that records of incidents and complaints are retained for an appropriate amount of time, to reflect the new time limit for Employment Tribunals. 

They’ll also need to ensure that their training, complaints and investigation procedures are specific, thorough, and policies around these are consistently abided by across teams and management. 

Finally, businesses need to ensure that they are requiring suppliers and contractors to abide by their anti-harassment policies, and that this is written into their contracts. Staff should also be aware of these policies and procedures, if harassment occurs.

There are a few further updates to the law around trade unions, which come into effect on 30th October. Employers must now provide their employees with a written statement, informing them that they have a right to join a trade union. Trade unions will also be given more rights to access the workplace; this includes both physical and digital spaces, union representatives will be given further accommodations, and union equality representatives have new rights to time off.

Businesses need to ensure that they have a written statement to provide to employees, which aligns with government requirements, and is provided to all existing employees and new employees when they join the company. They should also ensure that someone within the organisation is responsible for managing and adhering to union requirements and responsibilities.