UK employment compliance in 2026

Pre-2027 reality: employees needed 2 years of continuous service to bring an unfair-dismissal claim. Practical effect: most short-tenure dismissals carried no unfair-dismissal risk, only risk under separate discrimination, whistleblowing, or specific protected-reason claims.

Post-January 2027 reality: 6 months of service unlocks unfair-dismissal protection. Employers need a documented fair-procedure trail for any dismissal after the 6-month threshold. This compresses the “safer” dismissal window from 24 months to 6.

What this changes operationally

• Probation reviews must be substantive, not rubber-stamped at month 5
• Performance management starts earlier, capability concerns need formal handling before month 6, not after
• Settlement agreements get more common, quicker exits with finality replace contested dismissals
• Probation extensions become more common, six-month probation extended to 9 or 12 months where performance is unclear

The nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

Why discrimination claims matter more than unfair-dismissal claims

• No qualifying period, apply from job advert stage, through interview, into employment, post-termination
• No compensation cap, unfair dismissal is capped at lower of £105,707 (2025/26) or 52 weeks’ pay; discrimination is uncapped
• Three-month limitation but with continuing-act doctrine extending in practice
• Reverse burden of proof in some circumstances, employer must prove non-discriminatory reason once prima facie case established

Operationally: every UK HR process, recruitment, performance management, redundancy selection, promotion, termination, needs to be auditable against the protected characteristics. Teamed’s standard procedures bake this in.

A qualifying disclosure must:

• Be a disclosure of information (not a personal grievance)
• Be in the public interest
• Relate to one of six categories: criminal offence, breach of legal obligation, miscarriage of justice, danger to health and safety, environmental damage, or deliberate concealment of any of the above
• Be made to an appropriate recipient (typically the employer, but can be a regulator or external body in some cases)

Whistleblowing claims are increasing in the UK and have wider scope than the “classic” whistleblower image suggests. A grievance about working time, a complaint about cash-in-hand pay practices, a report about health and safety, all can qualify if framed as a disclosure rather than a personal grievance.

Practical implications for UK employers:

• Privacy notice issued at recruitment and on hire, explaining what data is processed and why
• Lawful basis documented for each processing purpose (usually “legitimate interest” or “contract performance” for employment data; consent for some specific things like marketing)
• Subject access requests (SARs) from employees, the right to a copy of their personal data and information about how it’s processed. Free unless “manifestly unfounded” or repetitive
• Data breaches, must be reported to the ICO within 72 hours if likely to result in risk to individuals’ rights
• International transfers, UK to outside-UK transfers require either adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other approved safeguards

For US-parented businesses hiring through Teamed in the UK, the international-transfer angle matters: employee data flowing from Teamed Ltd to the US parent requires SCCs (Standard Contractual Clauses) or another safeguard. Teamed handles the data processing agreement.

Three frameworks worth knowing:

• Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, primary union law, recognition procedures, industrial action rules
• Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE), protects employees when a business or service transfers between employers, including outsourcing/insourcing
• Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004, applies to employers with 50+ employees, on request from 10% of staff (cap of 2,500)

TUPE, the underrated risk

TUPE applies when an “economic entity which retains its identity” transfers between employers. This includes business sales and service-provision changes (e.g. switching outsourced services from Provider A to Provider B). Affected employees transfer with their existing terms and continuity of service. The new employer cannot vary terms for “TUPE-related reasons” without strict justification.

TUPE is the reason switching EOR providers isn’t free. If you move 30 UK employees from EOR Provider A to Teamed, TUPE applies, Teamed inherits the existing employment terms. Most EOR-to-EOR moves are handled by mutual consent without contesting TUPE applicability, but the legal framework is real.