24/04/2026
Pictured L-R - Alan Dillon, Minister of State for Employment, Small Business and Retail and Audrey Cahill, Director General of the WRC
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) today published its Annual Report for 2025. In welcoming the Report, Mr. Peter Burke T.D., Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment said:
“The Report highlights the WRC’s ongoing work to protect workers’ rights, resolve disputes, and strengthen its effectiveness. In 2025, the WRC’s conciliation services had an 85% success rate, with over 700,000 workers encompassed in the resolution of industrial relations disputes in both the public and private sectors.”
Minister Burke added,
“Robust and well-functioning industrial relations and employment rights institutions are a key strength of our economy, delivering tangible benefits for employers by supporting productivity and long-term business performance.”
Mr. Alan Dillon T.D. Minister of State with special responsibility for Employment, Small Businesses and Retail also welcomed the Report, adding:
“This Annual Report highlights the scale and efficiency of the work delivered by the Workplace Relations Commission on a daily basis. In 2025, the WRC handled over 64,000 information and advisory calls, completed more than 5,000 workplace inspections, issued over 2,500 adjudication decisions with decisions delivered within a median of 39 working days, and recovered more than €1.5 million in unpaid wages. This level of delivery, alongside the introduction of a new strategy and a dedicated Continuous Improvement Office, demonstrates a highly productive organisation focused on practical outcomes, compliance and timely resolution providing clarity and certainty for employers, particularly small businesses, while ensuring strong protections are upheld for employees in the workplace.”
Mr Kevin Foley, Chairperson of the Board of the WRC commented:
“Since its establishment in 2015, demand for WRC services and overall output have grown steadily year on year. The work of the WRC in promoting compliance with employment rights and contributing to a fair and level playing field for employees and employers, supports and contributes to a stable and inclusive economic environment.” The newly appointed Chair of the Board said he is looking forward to working with the Board and the WRC team to build on its success to date and support the organisation’s continued development over the next five years.
Ms Audrey Cahill, Director General of the WRC, said:
“10 years after the establishment of the WRC, this report demonstrates that the policy objective to deliver a better service for employers and employees, and to deliver savings for the taxpayer, businesses and workers has been met. The work of the WRC throughout 2025 impacted on the working lives of nearly three quarters of a million workers in Ireland and their employers. Whether through a brief informative phone call, a conversation with an inspector to assist an employer with compliance or through the resolution of a collective dispute, the WRC is part of the fabric of the world of work. We will continue to build on the learnings and successes of the last 10 years as our services expand into the future.
The WRC’s role in assisting in the resolution of discrimination complaints, both in and outside the workplace, has never been more relevant. As Ireland’s population continues to grow and become more diverse, the WRC is focused on ensuring that everyone can easily access justice. Over the next three years, one of our areas of focus will be both empowering people with knowledge and targeting education and outreach activities to support vulnerable groups in our society.
I think most people would hope that they would not have a reason to engage with the WRC at any stage in their working lives. Our goal is to deliver our services in such a way that service users are empowered to be the decision makers in their own resolution in the first instance, be it through sourcing the correct information, making changes based on the advice of an inspection or through a mediated or collective agreement. The increase in calls to our telephone information service and the significant growth in our mediation service with over 1,000 mediations taking place in 2025 demonstrates that user-centred resolution is the preferred option. Where that’s not possible, our robust structures delivering impartial adjudication and enforcement services underpin providing access to justice when proactive user-led resolution isn’t successful.”
The Workplace Relations Commission Annual Report 2025 is available at the following link:
English
Irish
WRC Tuarascail Bhliantuil 2025
An infographic from the Report summarising the WRC’s key performance indicators in 2025, is included below, indicating:
Inspections:
In 2025, 5,145 inspection cases were closed and of these, 1,775 were found to have contraventions of employment law. These cases involved 5,596 individual workplace inspection visits which uncovered 6,571 specific contraventions of legislation.
Most employers inspected are compliant or become compliant during the inspection process. Employers who fail to become compliant may be subject to enforcement action, including prosecution.
The year 2025 saw a significant increase in the enforcement of employment legislation falling under the remit of the WRC. 223 prosecutions were conducted, of which 183 resulted in successful outcomes, giving rise to an 82% success rate. This was up from 175 prosecution in 2024 which resulted in 141 successful outcomes and a 81% success rate. Overall, there was an increase of 27.5% in the number of prosecutions brought before the Courts by the WRC in 2025.
Recovery of unpaid wages:
The WRC Inspectorate recovered €1,578,924 in unpaid wages in 2025.
Adjudication Service:
The year saw a substantial rise in complaint applications for adjudication in the WRC, with 44% increase in applications received, while specific complaints rose by 28%. Consequently, there was a 30% increase in the number of adjudication files created. This growth in demand occurred against a backdrop of declining hearing throughput, reflecting ongoing capacity pressures within the system.
Notwithstanding these challenges, the Division continued to deliver strong performance with the median timeframe from hearing to decision issuance standing at 39 working days, reflecting continued focus on timely decision making.
Conciliation Service:
The WRC’s Conciliation Service, which is central to maintaining good workplace relations in Ireland and the effective resolution of disputes, maintained an 85% success rate in resolving dispute. Through the WRC's Conciliation Service over 700,000 workers were encompassed in the resolution of industrial relations disputes in both the public and private sectors.
WRC Statement of Strategy 2025 -2027:
The WRC’s Strategy Statement 2025 – 2027 “A Decade of Impact, a Future of Fair Work and Equality” was launched by Minister Dillon in July 2025. This is the WRC’s fourth Strategy Statement and while its statutory purpose and the services it provides remain unchanged, the Strategy Statement sets objectives designed to respond agilely to the changing and challenging economic, social and statutory environment.
The strategic framework is built around four interlocking pillars to ensure the WRC continues to protect workers rights, resolve disputes, empower people with knowledge and strengthen the WRC’s capabilities through continuous improvement
Digital Strategy:
In early 2025, the WRC commenced an Organisation Capability and Efficiency Review to identify opportunities to strengthen the WRC’s efficiency and effectiveness as demands on its services continue to grow. Several priority actions were identified in the Review, including the need for a detailed business process review, for which a request for tender was issued in December 2025. The Review also affirmed the WRC’s strategic direction, particularly in relation to the development of its three-year Digital Strategy and initiatives to strengthen workforce resilience and organisational culture.
Continuous Improvement Office:
A Continuous Improvement Office (CIO) was established in the WRC in August 2025, marking a significant milestone in the WRC’s organisational development. Its creation delivers on key recommendations of the Organisation Capability and Efficiency Review and aligns with the WRC’s strategic ambition to build a modern, data‑informed and agile organisation.
Information Services: 64,648 callers were helped by the WRC’s Information and Customer Service staff providing information on employment, equality, or industrial relations matters. There were over 4.7m page views of the WRC’s website in 2025, compared with 4.3m in 2024.
