For years, most employers have had a reasonably settled way of assessing unfair dismissal risk. Even where a dispute became contentious, there was usually a degree of predictability about the potential value of the claim.

We all know that life doesn't stick to evenings and weekends. Whether it's a school play at 10 am, a last-minute hospital discharge, or the slow, complicated process of divorce or grief – life happens when it happens. And too often, the working world hasn't made space for that.

For years, competition law has lived in the boardroom, not the HR suite. It was about prices, supply chains and markets, but rarely about people.

Commercial relationships do not tend to collapse based on a single moment or disagreement.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces one of the most consequential changes to the law of unfair dismissal since the right was first created. Whilst much attention has focused on the reduction of the qualifying period for bringing a claim, employers should be equally alert to another reform that could prove far more expensive: the removal of the statutory cap on unfair dismissal compensation.

In the twelve months since employers were placed under a positive duty to prevent sexual harassment, there has been a palpable shift in tone across workplaces.