Disputes & tribunals

Two dates are about to change how long every difficult decision follows you around.

From 1 October 2026, claims live twice as long. The time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims extends from three months to six, for acts occurring on or after that date. The candidate you rejected in October can still bring a claim in April. The temp assignment that ended badly stays live for half a year. Nothing about your legal exposure necessarily grows — but the window in which you must be able to evidence what happened doubles.

From 1 January 2027, dismissal risk transforms. The qualifying period for unfair dismissal drops from two years to six months, and the cap on the compensatory award is removed, for dismissals taking effect on or after that date. This lands on agencies twice: once for your own consultants — probation practice, reviews and early exits need documentation fit for the new regime — and once for every client you advise, because their caution will reshape how they hire. One provision deserves special attention in this sector: dismissing an employee to replace them with someone who is not an employee — which can include agency workers — is set to become automatically unfair. Expect clients to ask; have an answer.

Also in the same window: restrictions on fire-and-rehire are confirmed for January 2027 — dismissing an employee for refusing changes to core terms such as pay or hours becomes automatically unfair. And from 30 October 2026 the new harassment duties (including liability for third-party harassment) open a further route to claims that agencies placing workers on client sites need to manage through their client terms.

The defence is boring, and that’s the point. Tribunals are decided on evidence, and evidence is decided months earlier by habits: client briefs recorded; candidate consents and CV permissions logged; reasons for decisions noted at the time, not reconstructed later; exits documented; files retrievable within a day. Our working rule for members: if you cannot produce the paper trail for a placement within 24 hours, treat that as the emergency — not the claim itself.

Every date on this page is tracked weekly on our ERA timeline. And if you want your documentation discipline tested against the standard inspectors and tribunals actually apply, BIOR Agency Membership & Certification starts with exactly that assessment.