The Employment Rights Act 2025 delivers its second big tranche of changes to Britain’s shops this autumn. From 1 October 2026 the time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims doubles from three months to six, and from 30 October 2026 every employer, including the smallest independent retailer, becomes legally liable for harassment of its staff by customers, contractors and other third parties unless it can show it took “all reasonable steps” to prevent it. Both dates are now confirmed in the government’s implementation timetable, and Acas updated its formal guidance on the harassment changes on 26 August 2026. For a sector that recorded 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse against shop workers every day in the British Retail Consortium’s latest crime survey, the October package is the most operationally significant employment change since day-one statutory sick pay arrived in April.
In short
- 1 October 2026: the limit for lodging most employment tribunal claims in England and Wales rises from three months to six months, for claims where the relevant date falls on or after that day. Breach-of-contract claims on termination reportedly stay at three months, and the equivalent Scottish change lands on 9 November 2026.
- 30 October 2026: the duty to prevent sexual harassment is upgraded from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps”, and employers become liable for third-party harassment of their workers, by customers among others, across the protected characteristics. Tribunals can add an uplift of up to 25% to compensation where the preventative duty is breached.
- Trade union rights also switch on at the end of October: a standalone written statement telling workers they may join a union, new workplace access rights for unions (reportedly with an exemption for employers with fewer than 21 staff), and wider protection from detriment for taking industrial action.
- The shop-floor context is stark: the BRC’s 2026 crime report counts 1,600 daily incidents of violence and abuse, down from 2,000 a year earlier but still more than three times the 455 a day recorded in 2019–20. Acas’s own worked example of what not to do is a convenience store owner who treats racist abuse from customers as “part of the job”.
- The bigger bill is still coming: from 1 January 2027 the qualifying period for unfair dismissal falls to six months and the compensation cap is removed, with fire-and-rehire restrictions, guaranteed-hours rules for zero-hours staff and a ban on harassment NDAs scheduled for 2027. Tipping reforms originally pencilled in for October have slipped to the end of 2026.
What exactly changes on 1 October 2026?
The first October measure is procedural, but it changes the risk profile of every dismissal, disciplinary and pay dispute in a shop. Since the modern tribunal system was created, an employee has had three months, less a day, from the act complained of to lodge a claim for unfair dismissal, discrimination, unlawful deductions from wages and most other statutory rights. From 1 October 2026 that window becomes six months, according to the implementation timetable summarised by Pinsent Masons and Blake Morgan, two of the law firms tracking the Act’s commencement orders.
The new limit applies only where the “relevant date” of the claim falls on or after 1 October, so a dismissal on 20 September still runs on the old three-month clock. There is one carve-out in the legal commentary: breach-of-contract claims arising on termination, such as disputed notice pay, reportedly remain subject to the three-month limit. In Scotland the breach-of-contract change is scheduled separately for 9 November 2026, while the main six-month limit follows the same 1 October date across Great Britain.
For retailers the practical effect is a longer tail of exposure. A seasonal worker let go in early January 2027 will be able to bring a claim until the summer. Records that shop managers might previously have cleared after a quarter, from rota changes to till discrepancy investigations, now need to be kept at least twice as long. Insurers and HR advisers quoted across the trade press have been telling clients that the longer limit is also likely to increase the number of claims, simply because more people will still be inside the window by the time they seek advice.
Why a longer limit matters more for shops than for offices
Retail has a higher share of short-tenure, part-time and seasonal workers than most sectors, and turnover in store roles is structurally higher than in head office. Every departure is a potential claim, and the sector’s reliance on Christmas temps means the busiest hiring and firing period of the year, November to January, will now be the first full cycle to run under the six-month limit. The shift also lands alongside the January 2027 cut in the unfair dismissal qualifying period to six months, which for the first time brings most Christmas temporaries who are kept on past Easter within the scope of unfair dismissal protection.
What changes on 30 October 2026, and why does the harassment duty matter most?
The 30 October package is the one that will change day-to-day practice on the shop floor. Two related duties come into force together, and both are set out on the Acas harassment law changes page updated on 26 August 2026. First, the existing duty on employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their workers, which has applied since 26 October 2024 under the Worker Protection Act, is strengthened to a duty to take “all reasonable steps”. Second, employers become liable for harassment of their workers by third parties, which Acas defines to include customers, clients, service users, contractors, suppliers, people at events and other members of the public, whether online or in person.
The third-party element is a restoration rather than an invention. Employer liability for harassment by customers existed in the Equality Act 2010 until it was removed in 2013, and the Employment Rights Act 2025 reinstates it on a broader footing. According to Blake Morgan’s analysis of the commencement order, the new preventative duty covers third-party harassment related to the protected characteristics, with the exception of marriage and civil partnership and of pregnancy and maternity. Where a tribunal finds the preventative duty was breached, it may uplift compensation by up to 25%, the same mechanism that already applies to the sexual harassment duty.
The Act also gives ministers a power to make regulations specifying what counts as reasonable steps. Legal commentators expect those regulations in 2027, which means the first months of the new duty will be judged against Acas and Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance rather than a statutory checklist. For shop owners the message from Acas is that waiting for a complaint before acting will not satisfy the duty.
What “all reasonable steps” looks like in a shop
Acas says the steps expected will depend on the size of the organisation, the sector and the type of work, but its published list is concrete: risk assessments and incident monitoring, a harassment policy and worker training, updated terms and conditions, communications to customers about the consequences of abusing staff, and, in higher-risk settings, adequate staffing, safety equipment and body-worn or security cameras. Its negative example is aimed squarely at the independent trade: a convenience store owner who dismisses worker reports of customer threats and racist language as “part of the job”. Its positive example, a nightclub owner who introduces door supervisors, alarms, cameras, code words, a safe area and incident tracking, describes the kind of layered response a tribunal would expect to see.
For a single-site independent that does not mean installing a security desk. It does mean a written policy, a short training session for every member of staff, a visible notice to customers, a simple log of incidents, and a manager who is known to act on them. The retail store operations playbook approach that most well-run shops already use for staffing, stock and standards is the natural place to bolt those procedures on.
How the rules compare before and after October
| Rule | Before October 2026 | From October 2026 | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time limit for most tribunal claims | Three months less a day | Six months (relevant date on or after commencement) | 1 October 2026 (Scotland breach of contract: 9 November) |
| Sexual harassment prevention duty | “Reasonable steps” (since 26 October 2024) | “All reasonable steps” | 30 October 2026 |
| Harassment by customers and other third parties | No direct employer liability (removed in 2013) | Employer liable unless all reasonable steps taken; up to 25% compensation uplift | 30 October 2026 |
| Right to join a trade union | No standalone statement required | Written statement to workers required | 30 October 2026 |
| Union access to workplaces | No statutory access framework | Access agreements with statutory timetable; reported exemption for under 21 employees | 30 October 2026 |
| Unfair dismissal qualifying period | Two years | Six months, compensation cap removed | 1 January 2027 |
| Tipping reforms | Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 regime | Strengthened rules, delayed after consultation | End of 2026 (reported) |
What do the trade union changes mean for a small shop?
The trade union measures in the 30 October package are the part of the Act that has attracted the least attention from retailers, mostly because union density in independent retail is low. Three elements matter. First, every employer will have to give workers a standalone written statement informing them of their right to join a trade union. Second, unions gain statutory rights of physical and digital access to workplaces to meet, recruit and represent workers, under a process that NatWest Mentor’s summary describes as a 15-day window for the employer to respond, a 25-day negotiation period and a 55-day route to the Central Arbitration Committee if no agreement is reached.
The same summary says employers with fewer than 21 employees are exempt from the access provisions, which would take most single-site independents outside them. Third, protection from detriment for workers taking protected industrial action is extended, alongside new requirements on employers to provide reasonable facilities to union representatives.
For a chain with a few hundred staff the access rights are the item to plan for, because they apply store by store. For an independent with a handful of employees the written statement is the compliance point: it is a one-page document, but it is a legal requirement from 30 October and omitting it is the kind of gap that surfaces in a later tribunal claim.
Why is the timing so hard for retail?
The October measures arrive in the middle of the most expensive year for employing shop staff in a decade. The April 2026 tranche of the Act made statutory sick pay a day-one right and removed the lower earnings limit, changes the BRC has described as potentially “the single most expensive measure within the Act” because of retail’s large part-time workforce. April also brought the Fair Work Agency, day-one paternity and parental leave, a six-year holiday-pay record-keeping duty and a doubling of the protective award for collective redundancy failures from 90 to 180 days’ pay. All of that came on top of the employer National Insurance rise and the higher National Living Wage that the sector blamed for 18,000 retail job losses earlier this year.
Demand is not helping. The BRC-KPMG monitor put August retail sales growth at just 0.7% year on year, and the next official test is the Office for National Statistics’ retail sales release on 18 September, which most forecasters expect to confirm a summer slowdown. Retailers are therefore absorbing higher fixed labour costs against flat volumes, and the harassment duty adds a compliance cost that scales with headcount rather than sales.
Christmas hiring meets the new rules
The awkward overlap is seasonal recruitment. Most chains confirm their Christmas temporary intake in September and October, and this year every temp hired after 30 October starts under the third-party harassment duty, will be inside a six-month claims window on departure, and, if kept on for six months, will fall under the shortened unfair dismissal qualifying period from January. Retailers were already trimming seasonal intake before the Act; the question of whether the 2026 seasonal hiring low reflects automation, weak demand or employment-law caution is likely to be answered in the trading statements published in January.
How big is the customer-abuse problem the new duty is aimed at?
The third-party harassment duty was designed with public-facing sectors in mind, and retail is the largest of them. The BRC’s Crime Report 2026, published on 24 February and covering the year to 31 August 2025, recorded 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers per day. That is a fall from the 2,000 a day reported in the 2025 survey, and the BRC has called the decline hard-won progress, but it remains the second-highest figure on record and more than triple the 455 daily incidents logged in 2019–20. Trade coverage of the same report put physical violence at around 118 incidents a day, broadly unchanged year on year, and incidents involving a weapon at about 36 a day.
The report also records that retailers have spent almost GBP 5.5 billion (about USD 7.4 billion at current rates) on crime prevention over five years, and that only around half of retailers describe the police response as positive. Those figures cut both ways under the new duty. A large retailer that has invested in cameras, guarding and training will find it easier to demonstrate all reasonable steps. A small shop that has relied on the police, or on staff resilience, will need to show it has at least taken the low-cost steps Acas lists.
What should an independent retailer do before 30 October?
The compliance checklist for a single-site shop is short but it has to be done, and it has to be documented, because the duty is about being able to evidence steps rather than about outcomes.
- Write down the risk. A one-page risk assessment listing where staff meet third parties (till, door, deliveries, phone, social media) and what has happened in the past year. Acas expects risk assessments and incident monitoring as a baseline.
- Adopt a policy that names third parties. Most sexual harassment policies written for the October 2024 duty cover only colleagues. Extend it to customers, suppliers and contractors and to all forms of harassment, not just sexual.
- Train everyone, briefly, and record it. Fifteen minutes on what harassment is, how to report it and what the shop will do. Keep the sign-in sheet.
- Tell customers. A notice at the door or till stating that abuse of staff will not be tolerated and may lead to refusal of service is one of the specific steps Acas mentions.
- Keep a log and act on it. Record incidents, the response and any follow-up such as a ban or a police report. A log with entries and actions is the single most persuasive piece of evidence at a tribunal.
- Issue the union statement. From 30 October every worker must receive a standalone written statement of their right to join a trade union.
- Extend your record retention. With the six-month tribunal limit from 1 October, keep rota, disciplinary and payroll records for at least a year after an employee leaves.
Cost of compliance by size of business
| Business type | Likely reasonable steps | Typical cost | Main exposure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Independent, 1–5 staff | Policy, short training, customer notice, incident log | Owner time; templates available from Acas and trade bodies | No documentation at all; treating abuse as “part of the job” |
| Small chain, 21–250 staff | All of the above plus manager training, escalation route, review of staffing at high-risk times | Low four figures for training and policy work per year | Union access requests; inconsistent practice between stores |
| National retailer, 250+ staff | Formal risk assessments per format, body-worn cameras or guarding where risk warrants, central incident reporting, contractor clauses | Already largely spent under the 2024 duty and crime prevention budgets | Scale of claims under the six-month limit; 25% uplift on multi-claimant cases |
What is still to come in 2027, and what has been delayed?
October is the end of the 2026 phase, not the end of the Act. The government’s roadmap, as summarised by Pinsent Masons in a guide updated on 1 September 2026, sets 1 January 2027 for the reduction of the unfair dismissal qualifying period to six months and the removal of the compensatory award cap, both applying to dismissals on or after that date. Restrictions on fire-and-rehire are scheduled for January 2027. Later in 2027 come the measures that retailers have lobbied hardest on: guaranteed-hours offers for zero-hours and low-hours workers, compensation for cancelled shifts, a new establishment test for collective redundancy, reformed flexible-working rules, statutory bereavement leave, dismissal protection for pregnant workers and new mothers, and a ban on non-disclosure agreements covering harassment and discrimination.
The BRC’s stated position is that the guaranteed-hours provisions risk unintended consequences, reducing the flexible roles that retail offers, and that the reference period used to calculate an offer must reflect seasonal peaks or shops will be forced to guarantee Christmas-level hours in February. That consultation is still open. Meanwhile the tipping reforms that were originally listed for October 2026 have been pushed to the end of the year following opposition in consultation, according to Blake Morgan, a change that matters more for hospitality than for retail but affects any shop with a café or service counter.
How does this sit with the Budget and business rates?
The October dates fall two days either side of the Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026, and the sector’s lobbying has increasingly tied employment costs and property costs together. The British Independent Retailers Association’s six Budget demands, published earlier this month, put business rates first, calling for the 75% retail, hospitality and leisure discount to be restored, followed by employment costs, low-value imports, VAT compliance, retail crime and town centre parking. Bira has also warned that the new mayoral visitor levy risks squeezing high street spending unless the proceeds are reinvested locally.
The employment measures are not on the Budget table, because they are already law. What is in play is whether the Chancellor offsets them: the sector’s ask is for rates relief and a pause in further employer cost rises. Independent retailers who have followed the rates changes will know the April 2026 revaluation already introduced permanently lower multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure properties below GBP 500,000 rateable value, at 38.2p and 43p in the pound, funded by a 50.8p multiplier on the largest premises. Whether that is enough to absorb the Employment Rights Act is the question the trade bodies will put to the Treasury in the six weeks between the harassment duty switching on and the Budget.
What does the change mean for shop workers?
For the roughly three million people the BRC estimates work in UK retail, the October package is unambiguously a gain in rights. Staff who are abused by customers will, for the first time in 13 years, have a route to hold their employer accountable for failing to protect them, and the doubling of the claims window gives them time to take advice. Usdaw, the shop workers’ union, has campaigned for years for stronger protection from customer abuse, and the new duty sits alongside the separate standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker created by the Crime and Policing Act 2026. The two regimes now work in tandem: the criminal law targets the customer, the employment law targets the employer’s preparation.
The union statement and access rights are likely to have their largest effect in the grocery and department store chains where Usdaw already organises, rather than on the independent high street. But the written statement requirement means every shop worker, in every business size, will be told in writing that they may join a union. Combined with the January 2027 unfair dismissal change, the practical balance of power between a store manager and a six-month employee will look different by spring.
FAQ: Employment Rights Act October 2026 changes for shops
When do the Employment Rights Act changes take effect for shops in October 2026?
Two dates. On 1 October 2026 the time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims rises from three to six months. On 30 October 2026 the “all reasonable steps” sexual harassment duty, employer liability for third-party harassment, the written statement on the right to join a union and new union access rights come into force. Acas confirmed the 30 October date in guidance updated on 26 August 2026.
Does the six-month tribunal limit apply to claims that started before 1 October?
No. The six-month limit applies only where the relevant date, usually the dismissal or the act complained of, falls on or after 1 October 2026. Earlier events keep the three-month limit. Legal commentary also indicates breach-of-contract claims on termination stay at three months, and that the Scottish breach-of-contract change is scheduled for 9 November 2026.
Will a shop be liable if a customer racially abuses a member of staff?
From 30 October 2026, potentially yes, unless the employer can show it took all reasonable steps to prevent third-party harassment. Race is one of the protected characteristics covered by the new duty. Acas’s own example of a failing employer is a convenience store owner who dismisses reports of racist language from customers as part of the job.
What counts as “all reasonable steps” for a small independent shop?
Acas says it depends on size and sector, but its list includes a risk assessment, a harassment policy that covers third parties, staff training, customer communications about the consequences of abusing staff, incident monitoring, and, where risk is higher, adequate staffing and security cameras. For a small shop, a documented policy, a short training record, a customer notice and an incident log are the core evidence.
Are small employers exempt from the union access rights?
According to summaries of the Act, the trade union workplace access provisions do not apply to employers with fewer than 21 employees. The requirement to give every worker a written statement of their right to join a union applies regardless of size. Retailers should check the final regulations, as the exemption threshold is set in secondary legislation.
Do the October changes affect Christmas temporary staff?
Yes. Any temp hired after 30 October works under the third-party harassment duty, and on leaving will have six months rather than three to bring most claims. From 1 January 2027 the unfair dismissal qualifying period falls to six months, so temps retained beyond that point gain unfair dismissal protection.
What is the penalty for breaching the harassment prevention duty?
Where a tribunal upholds a harassment claim and finds the employer breached the preventative duty, it can uplift compensation by up to 25%. The Equality and Human Rights Commission can also take enforcement action against an employer for breach of the duty without an individual claim.
Has anything in the Employment Rights Act been delayed?
Yes. The tipping reforms originally scheduled for October 2026 have been pushed to the end of 2026 after opposition in consultation, according to Blake Morgan. The guaranteed-hours and zero-hours measures, fire-and-rehire restrictions, NDA ban and flexible working reforms are scheduled for 2027, with the unfair dismissal changes on 1 January 2027.
Where is the official guidance?
Acas publishes a dedicated harassment law changes page for the Employment Rights Act 2025, updated 26 August 2026, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission is expected to update its technical guidance on sexual harassment before 30 October. The BRC runs an Employment Rights Act hub for member retailers, and Bira and the Federation of Small Businesses publish templates for independents.
What to watch next
Three dates frame the rest of the year for shop employers. The first is 1 October, when the six-month claims window opens for any dismissal from that day. The second is 30 October, when the harassment and union measures switch on, two days after the Autumn Budget in which the sector wants business rates relief to offset its rising employment bill. The third is 1 January 2027, when the unfair dismissal qualifying period drops to six months and the compensation cap disappears.
The EHRC’s updated technical guidance and the government’s reasonable-steps regulations, expected in 2027, will define how strictly tribunals read the new duty. Until then, the safest position for any retailer, from a single market-town shop to a national chain, is the one Acas describes: assess the risk, write it down, train the team, tell the customers, and never treat abuse as part of the job. The official Acas guidance is at acas.org.uk.