Conciliation Service

If an employee has an issue at work regarding the conditions of employment or pay, for example, they can seek the assistance of a Conciliator which is an Industrial Relations Officer to act as a helpful intermediary to resolve the dispute.

The nature of employee and employer participation in this service is voluntary.

No decision is imposed on the parties by the Workplace Relations Commission facilitator. If the dispute cannot be resolved, it can be referred to the Labour Court if the parties elect to do so.

Mediation Service

When completing the application form to the Workplace Relations Commission, the employee and the employer both have options to choose this forum to attempt to resolve matters.

Once the applicant indicates he/she will engage in Mediation, the Respondent employer then is entitled to consider if they will engage in mediation.

The mediation process itself can be done via telephone.

In our opinion, this is not the way to proceed. Parties can instead have a face-to-face meeting and this is the only way to proceed, if parties choose mediation as a forum option.

Mediation is a worthwhile option for both the employee and employer. If it doesn’t work, parties can move on and proceed to have the matter decided upon by an Adjudicator.

Adjudication Service

This is the service that most people will be thinking of in their minds when they attend with a solicitor with a desire to resolve a workplace dispute.

One firstly submits a completed complaint form to the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission and it will then be assessed whether the dispute can be referred to mediation or adjudication.

An inquiry is arranged to have the case heard.

The Adjudicator will listen to the case and they have decision-making powers ie to make a determination in the case.

The hearings of these matters are confidential. Appeals of decisions made by Adjudicators are made to the Labour Court.

Inspection Service

Inspectors who are persons appointed by the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission have powers to inspect places of employment on behalf of the WRC to ensure compliance with employment law legislation.

Examples of Inspector’s powers:

To examine an employer or employee, and to require such person to answer such questions as the inspector asks relating to the employment of a person and to make a declaration as to the truth of those answers.

Attend and enter at a place of employment to inspect books, records, documents etc.

Remove these books, records, documents from the place of employment;

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