FULL DECISION
SECTION 44, WORKPLACE RELATIONS ACT 2015 SECTION 83 (1), EMPLOYMENT EQUALITY ACTS, 1998 TO 2015 PARTIES: DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SKILLS (REPRESENTED BY MARK FINAN, BL INSTRUCTED BY CHIEF STATE SOLICITORS OFFICE) AND JOSEPH VARLEY DIVISION:
SUBJECT: Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No's: ADJ-00034646 (CA-00045598-001)
DECISION: Background to the Appeal This is an appeal by Mr Joseph Varley (‘the Complainant’) from a decision of an Adjudication Officer (ADJ-00034646, dated 25 January 2023) under the Employment Equality Act 1998 (‘the Act’). The Complainant’s Notice of Appeal was received in the Court on 13 March 2023. The Court heard the appeal in Waterford on 7 November 2023.
Preliminary Issue The Respondent submits that the Court was notified of the within appeal outside the forty-two-day time limit for such notifications provided for in the Act and that the Court, absent the Complainant identifying ‘exceptional circumstances’ that prevented him referring his appeal within time, has no jurisdiction to hear the appeal. The Complainant accepts that he was put on notice of the forty-two-day time limit when he received the first instance decision from the Workplace Relations Commission. He told the Court that it had been his intention, at all times, to appeal that decision to the Labour Court and to do so in a timely manner. The Complainant also told the Court that he fell ill in late February 2023 and attended his General Practitioner on 8 March 2023 and again on 15 March 2023 with mild Covid-like symptoms. He accepts that he was not rendered incapable, as a result of his symptoms, of completing a relatively simple on-line form. He told the Court that he had been under the impression that he was still within time when he did, in fact, submit the appeal. The Complainant accepts that he was mistaken in so thinking and he also accepts that the period for bringing his appeal expired on 7 March 2023 and that there were no exceptional circumstances applying that prevented him referring his appeal on or prior to that date.
Decision Having regard to the facts as admitted by the Complainant, there is no need to recite the law in relation to ‘exceptional circumstances’ within the meaning of the Act. The Complainant referred the within appeal outside the statutory time limit provided in the Act for so doing and is unable to point to any event or occurrence that constitutes a basis for seeking an extension of time to bring his appeal. The appeal is, therefore, dismissed and the decision of the Adjudication Officer is upheld. The Court so decides.
NOTE Enquiries concerning this Decision should be addressed to Aidan Ralph, Court Secretary. |
