The qualifying period for unfair dismissal is dropping from two years to six months. New commencement regulations have now fixed the date at 1 January 2027. Here is what actually changes, and how to be ready.
What is changing
For years, most employees have needed two years of continuous service before they can bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim. That two-year qualifying period has shaped how businesses handle probation, early performance worries and the decision to let someone go. It is about to shrink.
Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months. In plain terms, an employee will be able to claim ordinary unfair dismissal once they have been with you for six months, rather than two years. It is one of the most significant changes in the Act for everyday people management.
The date is now fixed
Until recently the timing was an expectation. It is now set. The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026 confirm the timetable: a first, technical part commenced on 1 July 2026, and the substance, the new six-month period, takes effect for dismissals on or after 1 January 2027.
The transitional provisions turn on the effective date of termination. The practical read is simple: if the dismissal takes effect on or after 1 January 2027, the six-month period applies. The same date also brings the new protections against fire-and-rehire, so 1 January 2027 is the one to mark.
Why six months changes the calculus
The two-year period gave businesses a long runway to decide whether a hire was working out. Six months is a much shorter window, and it lands right around the point many probation periods end. The effect is that decisions you might once have taken at eight or ten months, with the comfort of the qualifying period behind you, will now sit inside claim territory.
This is not a reason to panic, and it does not stop you dismissing someone fairly. It does mean that the fairness of the process, having a real reason, following a sensible procedure, and being able to show both, matters from much earlier in the relationship than it used to.
The winners will not be those who dismiss faster to beat the clock, but those whose process is real from month one.
A worked example
Picture a hire who starts strong but drifts by month five. Under the old rules you had well over a year of headroom to coach, document and, if needed, part ways with little claim risk. From January 2027, that same situation at month seven is a potential unfair dismissal claim if the process is thin.
The businesses that handle this well will not be the ones that dismiss faster to beat the clock. They will be the ones whose probation reviews are real, whose concerns are put in writing at the time, and whose reasons for a decision are on the record rather than in someone's memory.
What a sensible employer does now
Start with probation. Make it a genuine checkpoint, with a clear review before six months, honest feedback, and a written record of how someone is doing. Train the managers who make these calls to write things down as they happen, not weeks later.
Tighten the basics that a fair dismissal rests on: a clear reason, a fair procedure, and documentation that shows both. None of this is new to good employers. What changes is that it now needs to be in place from month one, not banked for later.
Where Jamie HR fits
This is squarely the kind of problem Jamie HR is built for. It keeps people records, probation reviews, notes and policies in one place, so if a decision is ever questioned, the fair process behind it is there to be shown rather than reconstructed.
The date is set and the window is shorter. The quiet advantage goes to the businesses whose record-keeping is already tidy well before January 2027, not the ones scrambling to rebuild a paper trail after a claim lands.
