If one party is not satisfied with the decision of an Adjudication officer in the Workplace Relations Commission, they can seek to appeal the decision of the Adjudication Officer to the Labour Court for determination.
Lodging appeals to the Labour Court involves a short period of time wherein one is permitted to appeal a decision of the Adjudicator.
It is only 42 days from the date of the Adjudicator’s decision.
This will concentrate the mind of the person lodging the appeal and their advisor when deciding to appeal or not.
Lodging an Appeal to the Labour Court
An appeal will be initiated by the party concerned giving a notice in writing to the Labour Court, containing such particulars as are determined by the Labour Court, in accordance with rules and stating that the party concerned is appealing the decision to which it relates.
Time Limit of Labour Court Appeals
One only has within 42 to lodge an appeal. This is a short period of time, and the matter must be reviewed quickly and a decision made in respect of appealing the matter or not.
Time Limit Extension of Labour Court Appeals
If one is out of time to lodge an appeal, you can seek ask the Labour Court for a time extension.
The Labour Court may direct that an appeals notice may be given to it after the requisite period, if it is satisfied that the notice was not so given before such expiration due to the existence of exceptional circumstances.
This should not be relied on in any avoidable situation whatsoever as it is not easy to satisfy the exceptional circumstance test.
The Labour Court in Thulach Na Nog v Joyce Fitzsimons-Markey (EET 0354)set out that in considering applications such as in the instant case, the circumstances relied upon must be exceptional and such that the applicant was prevented from lodging a claim on time.
Say the person appealing has a medical issue, and it was for this reason that he/she provides as to why the appeal could not be lodged within the 42 day period.
Notwithstanding the person has a medical issue, the court will ask if the person could have furnished instructions to their solicitor to lodge the appeal, for example.
A serious medical condition could constitute ‘exceptional circumstances’ for the Labour Court, but the second aspect of the test is more difficult to traverse.
The second aspect of the test is did the persons medical condition, for example, operate so as to prevent the applicant from lodging the application in time.
Each case will be decided on its own set of facts, but in G.T. na N. – V – J.F.M. it was stated
“The Court must first consider if the circumstances relied upon by the applicant can be regarded as exceptional. If it answers that question in the affirmative the Court must then go on to consider if those circumstances operated so as to prevent the applicant from lodging her claim in time.
Disclaimer
Please be advised that the above-mentioned material is intended as an overview and as a broad out-line of the topic discussed.
It should not be considered as complete and comprehensive legal advice, nor act as an appropriate substitute. Legal advice should be sought from a solicitor prior to relying on anything in this article.
Due care has been taken in the publication of this article and we do not accept legal liability as a result of reliance on any material covered in the above article.
