Business leaders across the Black Country have been warned they are running out of time to prepare for the next round of employment law changes, which will bring significant adjustments to unfair dismissal rights from 1 January 2027.

The warning has come from Samantha Owen, partner at local law firm mfg Solicitors, who is urging business leaders and their HR teams to act now as they have only weeks left to prepare for the changes which sees the qualifying period for unfair dismissal reduced from two years to just six months.

Part of several phased updates to the Employment Rights Act, from January the legislative changes will see over six million additional employees gaining protection around unfair dismissal, alongside changes to compensation caps and trade union rights. Samantha Owen said: “Reducing the qualifying period for unfair dismissal protection to six months is a huge adjustment, and practically, will need businesses to review their probationary periods, recruitment practices and train their managers on what’s expected of them. Even Fixed Term Contracts and Apprenticeship Agreements will be affected.

“The change will ultimately increase dismissal risk for businesses, particularly because unfair dismissal protection will arise after only six months and compensatory awards will no longer be capped - potentially increasing employers' exposure in higher-value claims. Coupled with it being easier for employees to join a trade union, it’s going to be a testing time for businesses, large or small.

“I am speaking to dozens of businesses in the lead up to January and beyond. Some are well prepared, whilst other HR teams know they must be doing more during this short window to review dismissal procedures, contractual variation clauses, internal processes, consultation arrangements and training. It’s a short but vital timeframe all businesses must get ahead of.”

Ms Owen added that following the January changes, the next updates will come in during March and will include major restrictions on “fire and rehire” practices and also see the introduction of mandatory gender equality and menopause action plans for local authorities.

Between April and December, there are further reforms scheduled, including around bereavement leave, collective redundancy changes, pregnancy and maternity dismissal protection, flexible working reforms and restrictions on NDAs.

For further advice, readers can email Samantha direct through samantha.owen@mfgsolicitors.com.

mfg Solicitors has offices in the Black Country, Ludlow, Telford, Worcester, Birmingham, Kidderminster and Bromsgrove.