From 1 January, anyone with six months’ service can claim unfair dismissal, with no cap on the award. Get the process right.
HR and employment law for small employers. Monthly, and every letter countersigned.
Six questions give you a dated case plan that follows the Acas code. Free, with no account, in about two minutes.
Started 18 May 2026. Service as the law counts it: 8 months and 1 week. Can claim unfair dismissal: yes.
We draft every letter and your hearing script; a qualified HR adviser checks and countersigns each one before it reaches your employee.
Reserving is free. We’re opening cases soon and will email you the day we do. If it can’t wait, call the Acas helpline, free, on 0300 123 1100.
Nothing that changes someone’s job goes out unsigned: not an invitation to a meeting, not a warning, not an outcome.
Until now, staff needed two years’ service to claim unfair dismissal. From 1 January 2027 they need six months, and the cap on the compensatory award goes (Employment Rights Act 2025, section 25). The government’s own analysis finds accommodation and food the most affected sector: a third of its employees have between six months’ and two years’ service (Department for Business and Trade, January 2026).
The new rule applies wherever the job ends on or after 1 January 2027, even if notice was given before (SI 2026/559, regulation 4). When the law works out someone’s service, it adds the statutory minimum notice, even if you pay in lieu (Employment Rights Act 1996, section 97). So anyone who started before early July 2026 can claim from the first day of the new rules.
A fair process is the one in the Acas Code of Practice: establish the facts, tell the employee the problem in writing, hold a meeting where they can be accompanied and give their side, decide and confirm it in writing, and allow an appeal. Tribunals take the code into account, and can raise an award by up to 25% when an employer unreasonably fails to follow it.
Sam runs a café with nine staff. Their barista started on 18 May 2026 and missed three Saturday shifts in December without calling in. Sam starts the process on Monday 4 January 2027.
The quickest fair process puts a decision on Monday 18 January 2027. The law adds a week’s statutory notice, so the barista’s service counts to 25 January 2027: 8 months and 1 week. That’s more than six months, after 1 January, so they can claim unfair dismissal if the reason or the process isn’t fair.
With no earlier warning, the code’s usual outcome when misconduct is confirmed is a written warning. Sam decides; the plan sets out the steps and the dates, and stops if anything points to illness, pregnancy or a recent complaint.
Yes, if their employment ends on or after 1 January 2027. The rule follows the date the job ends, not the date notice is given (SI 2026/559, regulation 4). The law also adds the statutory minimum notice to their service, even if you pay in lieu of notice (Employment Rights Act 1996, section 97).
Paying in lieu of notice doesn’t stop the law counting that week towards their service. From 1 January 2027, anyone with six months’ service can claim unfair dismissal if the reason or the process wasn’t fair, and there’s no longer a cap on what a tribunal can award.
They can’t claim ordinary unfair dismissal, but some claims need no service at all: discrimination, and dismissal for a reason the law makes automatically unfair, such as pregnancy, asking for flexible working or raising a health and safety concern. A fair process is your record of why you acted.
No. Information, not legal advice. It applies the Acas Code of Practice and GOV.UK guidance to your dates by fixed rules. It doesn’t write letters, and it never says a dismissal will stand up. If the employee is pregnant, ill or disabled, or has recently complained or asked for flexible working, it stops and says to talk to an adviser first. The Acas helpline is free on 0300 123 1100.
£79 a month for up to 15 staff, or £129 a month for 16 to 49, and you can cancel any time. A case that started before you joined costs £295 once. We’re taking reservations now and will email you the day we open cases.
Every letter that changes someone’s job, from an invitation to a meeting to an outcome, is read by a qualified HR adviser with your case file beside it, and countersigned before it reaches your employee. Nothing like that goes out unsigned.