The window for bringing most UK employment tribunal claims doubled on 1 October 2026, and the rule an employer applies now depends on the date of the underlying event.
What happened
Acas, the UK conciliation service, updated its guidance on 1 October to say the law on tribunal time limits changed that day. For a problem at work that happened before 1 October 2026, most claims carry a limit of three months minus one day. For a problem on or after 1 October 2026, most claims carry six months minus one day.
Acas works through two examples. An employee paid the wrong amount on 30 September 2026 has until 11:59pm on 29 December 2026. An employee paid the wrong amount on 1 October 2026 has until 11:59pm on 31 March 2027. Breach of contract claims in Scotland keep the old limit until 9 November 2026.
Why it matters
Internal procedures do not stop the clock. Acas states that going through a grievance, disciplinary or appeal procedure does not change the time limit, even when those procedures take a long time. Early conciliation does pause the limit, but only when the employee notifies Acas within the original limit. A late claim can still go ahead if the judge accepts it, though Acas says limits are strictly enforced in most cases.
The angle most coverage skips
This is our analysis. For roughly the next three months, an HR team has two limitation rules live at once, and the event date decides which one applies. A dispute log that records only the complaint type and the date it was raised cannot answer that question. Adding an event-date field to the case record is a small change, and it removes the guesswork when a claim lands near a boundary. Our full piece on the October to January run of UK changes covers what else arrives in that window, and the union notice duty is one of the January items.
