What the New 6 Month Tribunal Time Limit Means for Your Business

That means an employee can now bring a claim against you for something that happened up to six months ago.

The old three-month deadline quietly protected employers for years. A significant number of employees simply missed it. They did not get legal advice quickly enough, or they ran out of time while still trying to resolve things internally.

For employers, 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 the real figure will be significantly higher.

What has changed

From 1 October 2026, the time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims increased from three months to six. That covers unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, harassment, unlawful deductions from wages and working time claims, among others.

The extended 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 three-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 three months of a dismissal or incident, you could reasonably assume it was not going to.

Six months changes that completely.

An employee dismissed in October can now bring a claim in April. A grievance raised in November can become a tribunal claim the following May. Issues you thought were finished 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 extension raises the stakes on obligations you already have. If they were not 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 are 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 cannot show what happened and why, six months after the event, you could lose the claim on paperwork alone. That is genuinely how these cases go.

It is also worth reviewing how long you keep records. HR files and correspondence now need to be stored for longer than you may currently be keeping them. If the evidence does not exist when a claim arrives, you cannot 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 are making people decisions without documenting them properly, the longer 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 your business meets the standard a tribunal expects. That covers your disciplinary and grievance procedures and your record-keeping practices.

If your processes are not ready for the new time limit, get in touch now. It is far cheaper to sort this before a claim arrives than after one does.

Get in touch for a confidential chat today.

📞 0161 757 7576
📧 info@hrtoolbox.co.uk
🌐 www.hrtoolbox.co.uk