Three employment law changes land on small employers this October

The time limit for bringing most Employment Tribunal claims rose from three months to six on 1 October. That covers discrimination, unfair dismissal and unlawful deductions from wages.

It brings standard claims into line with the six-month limits that already applied to statutory redundancy pay and equal pay.

Two further duties start on 30 October. Employers must take "all reasonable steps" to prevent sexual harassment, including harassment by third parties such as customers, clients or contractors.

From the same date, employers must give workers a written statement telling them of their right to join a trade union. Independent unions also gain a statutory right to request access to the workplace, physically or digitally.

Grace Pariser, founder of HR On Call, told Startups.co.uk what that stacking means for a firm with nobody on HR: "For a business with no HR function running in the background, that's three separate obligations arriving in the space of four weeks."

The longer claim window matters mostly because of paperwork. Jasia Kazmi, an employment lawyer at Witan Solicitors, said a dispute raised five or six months after the event "is naturally harder to respond to well, since memories can fade and people move on, and if the paperwork isn't there, you may not have the facts you need to respond".

Juliet Irving, Director of HR Operations at Impact HR, advises keeping "good records of conversations, decisions, performance issues and grievances" so a business can "evidence what happened several months down the line". Her point is that documentation should be routine rather than reactive, with line managers briefed on what to record and when.

Pariser also suggests businesses consider legal expenses insurance, saying there is "nothing to stop employees or ex-employees from bringing a baseless claim which can cost the employer upwards of £15k".

On harassment, the widening of liability catches anyone whose staff face the public. Irving said the protections "can extend to interactions with customers, clients, contractors, service users and members of the public" — hospitality, retail and healthcare among them.

Kim Croasdale, founder of the consultancy Entela, sets out four steps: a workplace risk assessment covering public-facing and lone-working roles, a clear harassment policy with a named contact, direct training for staff and managers, and updated supplier and client contracts "so harassing behaviour is something the business can actually act on". The contracts point, she said, is "most likely to be missed by small businesses".

The union measures are less alarming than they sound, and more awkward. Pariser rates the access right as the lesser worry: "Unions aren't going to let an employer forget it exists; they're the ones who'll be asking for it."

The written notice is the one with nobody chasing it. "Nobody's chasing that up on an employer's behalf, which makes it the one most likely to slip through the cracks," Pariser said. The government has yet to confirm what the statement must contain.

Access is not recognition. Irving said the two "are separate things and employees remain free to decide whether they wish to engage with or join a union".

Headcount offers one shelter. Irving said the Central Arbitration Committee cannot impose a statutory workplace access agreement on an employer with fewer than 21 workers. The written notice duty applies whatever the headcount.

So: two dates to diarise, and one of them has already passed. Records kept from this month are the evidence a founder will need if a claim arrives next spring, and the written union statement is the duty most likely to be forgotten because nothing in the system will remind you.