Key takeaways

• Before the general election in July 2024, the Labour Party promised that, if elected, it would extend the time limit for bringing employment tribunal claims from three to six months.
• In Next Steps to Make Work Pay, published with the Employment Rights Bill on 10 October, the government said that measures to extend the tribunal time limit would be added to the Bill via amendment as it progressed through the legislative process.
• This amendment has been published.
• You can read about the key provisions of the Employment Rights Bill as originally published here.
• For more information on what this development means for you and your business, please get in touch with your usual Baker McKenzie contact.

In more detail

The Labour Party promised in its Plan to Make Work Pay before the election that it would increase employment tribunal time limits, and in Next Steps to Make Work Pay, the government said that the Bill would be amended to make this change.  As this is a government amendment fulfilling a manifesto promise, we expect the amendment to pass.

The amendment simply replaces three months with six months where this period is referred to as the time limit for bringing claims in relevant legislation.  There has, to date, been no suggestion that changes will be made to the current Acas early conciliation procedure, which allow for an extension to the time limits in order to complete this process, meaning that if passed as expected, the time limit would in effect be up to six months and six weeks (or approximately seven and half months) after the date the claim arose. The change would also not affect employment tribunals’ current discretion to extend time in certain circumstances.

The change will allow claimants more time to decide if they want to bring a claim, which is particularly helpful to claimants who have been ill, or have recently given birth, and may find it hard to complete all the necessary steps in time.  However, a longer period before a case reaches a final hearing increases the risk that parties’ and witnesses’ memories of events fade, evidence is lost or that witnesses leave the respondent’s employment. There are further concerns that extending the period in which claimants can bring claims, together with the effect of the other provisions in the Bill, will increase the number of claims in the tribunal system, and will worsen the already considerable delays before cases are heard.

There has been no statement as to when the change would come into force and so, like the majority of the Bill’s provisions, we do not expect the extension to come into force before 2026.  However, this is not confirmed.