Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 March 2022
168. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the median time from receipt of complaint to issuing of decision presently applicable to the Workplace Relations Commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15580/22]
View answerSimilar to other adjudicative bodies, the impact of Covid 19, and the occasioned restrictions on in-person hearings, has disrupted the scheduling of complaints submitted to the WRC quite significantly.
In April 2020, the WRC initiated a comprehensive public stakeholder consultation process to identify how best to dispose of complaints in the absence of a facility for in-person hearings as respective Covid-19-related restrictions applied. Following this process and assisted by the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act – which removed the requirement for consent to such a mode of hearing, the WRC established a remote hearing platform and almost all hearings that have taken place over the past two years have been carried out via that platform.
In that time, on average, the WRC has been offering between 120-135 hearings per week: more than that available pre-Covid. As Covid restrictions ease the WRC will also will be in a position to bring forward for early disposal those cases that are not suited to a virtual hearing.
Given this disruption, the median time for decisions issued in Quarter 4 2021 stood at 15 months from date complaint received and this includes complaints received both before and during the initial phase of Covid-19 where cases could not be brought to hearing until the virtual hearing platform went “live” and was fully utilised by parties.
Over the next 8 months, the WRC is in a position to dispose of or schedule for hearing all cases received prior to 2022 where parties are available to attend and no delays in submissions arise from one or other party. This will impact positively on the overall median period, and I am further informed that the WRC is in a position to offer complaints currently being received a hearing date or dispose of such cases within ten months. Decisions typically issue within a month of the hearing.
