In 2018, over 90% of complaints received by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) for adjudication were processed from receipt to hearing and decision within six months, where there were no requests for postponements, where all parties were available and where submissions were received in a timely manner.
During 2018, 15,451 individual complaints were received by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). Of these 2,156 (14%) related to unfair dismissal cases, either singularly or combined with other complaints under employment rights and equality legislation. The WRC held 5,312 hearings during 2018 which is an increase of 22% compared to 2017 and 2,964 decisions were issued which was an increase of 32% on 2017.
However, where parties are not available for hearings and seek postponements, often more than once, the median time from receipt of complaint to issuing of decision is nine months. Furthermore, following a hearing an Adjudication Officer may often require a party to submit additional information. Fair procedures dictate that the other side is afforded the opportunity to provide observations on this material. It follows that delays in finalising decisions can arise.
Against this background, the WRC’s aim is that decisions should issue within 6 weeks from the hearing or the date of receipt of the final piece of relevant information. However, it must be borne in mind that some decisions, e.g. unfair dismissal, equality issues, are more complex than others and may take longer than this to formulate. At end 2018, the median time from final hearing to issuing of decision was 13 weeks. This has declined slightly in 2019 and the work programme for 2019 has set a target to reduce this by a further two weeks over the course of the year. The recruitment of a further cadre of Adjudication Officers who will come on stream during 2019 will assist in meeting this goal.
