Monthly HR newsletter October 2026
This month's round-up from your local HR consultancy in Hertfordshire and London, covering the employment law developments employers should be planning for now.
Union access to your workplace: what's coming
Even if a trade union has never approached your business, that may be about to change.
Subject to approval by Parliament, new rules on workplace access are set to start on 30 October 2026. Unions would be able to apply for access, in person or online, so they can meet staff, sign up members and organise.
A union doesn't need any existing members among your workers before making a request. If you employ 21 or more workers across the business and no agreement on terms is reached, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) could step in and set them.
The process as proposed allows 15 working days for answering a formal request, after which there would be a further 25 working days of negotiation. Breaching a statutory access agreement repeatedly could lead to penalties of as much as £500,000.
There's a related duty to plan for as well. From 1 January 2027, every employer will have to tell workers in writing that they have the right to join a union.
Three steps to take now
Decide where the union rights statement will sit in your onboarding paperwork.
Nominate someone to manage any access request and a way of tracking each deadline.
Brief managers on who should receive any contact from a union.
We can help you get the paperwork and procedures in place, so do get in touch if you'd like to discuss it.
Please note: when this was prepared on 28 September 2026, Parliament had not yet approved the access rules. Ask us for an update, or see our earlier article on union access rights.
The Employment Rights Act changes worrying employers most
Acas and YouGov asked upwards of 1,000 employers which Employment Rights Act reforms they expect to be toughest to put into practice. Statutory sick pay from day one came top on 30%, ahead of paternity leave from day one on 27% and the shorter qualifying period for unfair dismissal on 23%.
Not far behind, on 21% apiece, were flexible working and trade union recognition.
The fieldwork took place between late April and early May 2026. In other words, a number of these reforms had already taken effect at the point employers were saying they still found them difficult.
Acas has refreshed its guidance on probation and unfair dismissal in light of the changes. If you are yet to compare your own processes with it, this is the moment to do so.
Facebook dismissal ruled unfair by tribunal
An employee at a warehouse shared details of his grievance about work on Facebook and was sacked for gross misconduct. A tribunal has decided that the dismissal was unfair.
The employer was DHL. It had not sent him its social media policy, had offered no guidance about how to behave online, and never asked him to delete the post before going down the dismissal route. Evidence that the posts had actually damaged the business was also thin.
The tribunal's remedy was reinstatement.
The lesson for employers is clear. A social media policy only protects you if your people have genuinely been given a copy. And when an employee's online activity bothers you, talk to them first rather than reaching for a dismissal letter.
Keep Britain Working and the shift in employer responsibility
The government's Keep Britain Working review is drawing up a standard aimed at employers, covering how they manage health at work, sickness absence and disability inclusion. The signal for smaller firms is unmistakable: employers will be expected to do more, and in a more organised way, to manage their people's health.
Some of the headline figures:
Health conditions currently account for 2.8 million people being economically inactive.
Sickness absence levels are the highest they have been for 15 years.
Each day an employee is off sick costs their employer an estimated £120.
The review also reported that 93% of fit notes say the person is "not fit for work". One option it is looking at is swapping the existing system for joint plans, agreed between employer, employee and healthcare providers, to help people stay in work or get back to it.
Pilots testing fit note reform started in May 2026, and a draft version of the employer standard is due before the year is out.
Tidying up how you manage absence today means you will already be in step with where policy is going.
Six months to claim: the new tribunal deadline
Since 1 October 2026, the window for bringing most employment tribunal claims has been extended from three months to six.
Employers used to benefit from the shorter deadline. Three months slips by fast, and many employees missed their chance to bring a complaint.
Under the new limit, employees get extra time to think things through, seek advice and strengthen their claim. Factor in Acas early conciliation, which was already lengthened to 12 weeks, and a dispute might remain open for close to nine months before any claim arrives.
The six-month window covers dismissals and workplace incidents from 1 October 2026 onwards. For anything that happened earlier, three months is still the limit.
That means poorly recorded conversations, shortcut processes and badly handled dismissals now expose you to risk for double the time. If your records and procedures need work, act on them now.
For more detail, read our in-depth article on the new tribunal deadline.
We can review the way you manage dismissals and workplace problems so the change doesn't catch you out. Just get in touch and we'll guide you through it.
Your HR questions answered
Must I inform staff of their right to join a union?
You will from 1 January 2027, when all employers become obliged to provide workers with a written statement on their union membership rights.
New joiners must get it at the same time as their written statement of particulars of employment. Your current workforce must be given it, or told how to find it, no later than 5 April 2027.
A standard form of statement, along with final guidance, is due from the government before the duty starts, so review those requirements before amending your paperwork.
Someone left my business five months ago. Could they still bring a tribunal claim?
The answer turns on their leaving date.
Where their employment ended on 1 October 2026 or later, the six-month limit applies to most claims, so they may well still be in time. Where they left before then, the three-month limit applies and they are probably too late.
Bear in mind that Acas early conciliation can also pause the clock, adding as much as 12 weeks.
An employee wants adjustments for menopause symptoms. What must I do?
The Equality Act does not treat menopause as a protected characteristic on its own. Even so, symptoms that have a substantial and long-term effect on someone's normal daily activities can count as a disability.
In that case, you are under a duty to make reasonable adjustments. And even if the symptoms don't reach that level, brushing off a request could expose you to sex or age discrimination claims.
Take any request seriously and work through which adjustments are realistic for your business. You can find more in our menopause at work guide.
Local HR support in Hertfordshire, London and beyond
Whether it's adding the new union statement to your onboarding paperwork, preparing for an access request or tightening up how you handle dismissals and absence, Progressive HR Solutions helps small businesses across Hertfordshire and London get ready.
Contact Progressive HR Solutions to book an initial conversation.
