Business Services
Law Guide
- Discipline and dismissal
- Employee rights
- Working time regulations
- Flexible working
- Discrimination and equal pay (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Discrimination and equal pay (Northern Ireland)
- Overview
- Age discrimination
- Bullying in the workplace
- Sexual orientation discrimination
- Religious belief or political opinion discrimination
- Disability discrimination
- Race discrimination
- Sex discrimination
- Marital status
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Gender reassignment
- Equal opportunity
- Equal pay
- Enforcement of rights
- Sexual harassment (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Adoption leave and pay
- Maternity leave and pay
- Shared parental leave and pay
- Paternity leave and pay
- Neonatal care leave and pay
- Parental bereavement leave and pay
- Parental leave and rights
- Carer's leave (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Pay and the minimum wage
- Emergency dependant leave
- Study or training (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Part-time working
- Whistleblowing by staff
- Working for a new owner
- Pensions
- Employing staff
- Flexible working
- Grievances
- Other compliance issues
- Sickness absence
- The Employment Rights Act 2025 (England, Wales and Scotland)
Unfair dismissal changes
Changes to qualifying period and maximum award
Currently, employees must work for an employer for at least 2 continuous years before they can start a claim for unfair dismissal. If they are successful, their damages will be capped at the lower of £118,233 (at 2025-2026 figures) and 52 weeks' pay.
This is set to change on 1 January 2027, so that employees will be able to start an unfair dismissal claim after working for their employer for at least 6 continuous months. Also, the current cap on damages will be removed.
This will effectively bring unfair dismissal claims in line with claims for discrimination and whistleblowing.
The removal of the cap may see a reduction in spurious discrimination claims made to maximise potential damages.