Two years becomes six months: unfair dismissal from 1 January 2027
From 1 January 2027, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months. The commencement regulations are made, so this is a fixed date, not a proposal.
What changes
Two years becomes six months. Employment Rights Act 2025, section 25, brought in by SI 2026/559.
It does not phase in. The rule turns on the date employment ends, not the date someone was hired. Anyone who started on or before 1 July 2026 and is still with you on 1 January 2027 already has their six months.
Statutory notice counts. Where notice is not given, the statutory minimum notice period can carry the date employment ends past the six-month mark.
The cap on compensation goes. For employment ending on or after 1 January 2027, the cap on the compensatory award is removed. Today it is the lower of £123,543 or 52 weeks' pay.
The claim window has already doubled. Since 1 October 2026, the time limit for most tribunal claims has been six months rather than three (SI 2026/954).
What it means across many sites
This is arithmetic before it is law. Two years gave you eight quarters of attendance history to spot a pattern in. Six months gives you two.
Two quarters is not long enough to find a pattern in a record kept in a dozen places by a dozen people. "Off sick" at one site and "personal" at another was never one set of data, and it will not have become one by month five.
The three changes also stack. The time to notice a problem gets shorter, the time to bring a claim has got longer, and the cost of getting it wrong no longer has a ceiling.
Where a single record helps
Workplace Reporting records every absence call the same way at every site: who called, the reason, the shift and the expected return, from the first call. Your managers see it before the shift, and the history is in one place when you need it.
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Sources: SI 2026/559 and SI 2026/954 on legislation.gov.uk; Mishcon de Reya and BCLP commentary. This guide explains the law as it stands. It is not legal advice; speak to an employment lawyer about individual cases. Last reviewed 10 October 2026.