ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Decision Reference: ADJ-00001696

Complaint for Resolution:

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 03/05/2016

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Pat Brady

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 41(4) of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 and/or Section 8(1B) of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977, following the referral of the complaint to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint. 

Complainant’s Submission and Presentation:

The complainant did not attend the hearing as she had to return to her native country to seek medical treatment for her child. She was due to return later on the day scheduled for the hearing

She was legally represented and sought an adjournment.

Respondent’s Submission and Presentation:

In responding to the request for the adjournment the respondent submitted that the case fell outside the time limits permitted for the submission of a claim. The dismissal allegedly took place on March 12th 2015.

However, the claim was not received by the WRC until February 1^st 2016, some eleven months later. The respondent submitted that there were no good or exceptional reasons for the delay in submitting the complaint and that it must fall.

Conclusions and Findings

While the reasons submitted for the complainant’s absence from the hearing were plausible and might have grounded a successful application fo an adjournment there is the matter of the late submission of the claim to consider.

The complainant’s representative was not in a position to offer any reason why submission of the complaint was so delayed and, given that, to bring the parties together again simply to hear the case on the time limits would be a futile exercise.

Accordingly I deny the application for the adjournment.

Decision:

Section 41(4) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint(s)/dispute(s) in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.

Section 8(1B) of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977 requires that I make a decision in relation to the unfair dismissal claim consisting of a grant of redress in accordance with section 7 of the 1977 Act.

The complaint was not submitted within the required six month’s and no reasonable cause was advanced for the failure to do so.

Accordingly I dismiss the complaint as being submitted outside the statutory time limits.

Dated:   29^th July 2016