in this video I want to take a look at appeals to the labor court and what are
the essential things you should know when can you appeal and how is it
conducted whore where are the rules and so on so let's take a look
fortunately there are two types of appeal to the labor court one needs an
appeal of a decision of an adjudication officer in the workplace relations
commission so that would be a force instance complaint about unfair
dismissal or organization of Rach interact or whatever discrimination and
you may or may not be happy or the other party may or may not be happy with the
decision of the adjudicating officer then that decision can be appealed to
the labor court there's another type of appeal that can go through their record
and that is the appeal of by an employer of a compliance notice received from an
inspector that's an inspector from Mirror or the
workplace Relations Commission just perhaps in relation to minimum wage
payments or working time records or records that the employer should keep
whatever they are the two types of appeals to the labor court division of
the labor court each case is death with by what's called a division of the labor
court on a division comprises the chairman and employer member an employee
member the time limit from bringing an appeal from the decision of an
adjudication officer is 42 days from the date of the decision so if you want to
bring an appeal make sure you check the date on the decision from the workplace
relations commission time can be extended but only in exceptional
circumstances the procedures done in the labor court will later court business on
like WRC business is conducted in public and the normal rules are set out in four
parts as follows the procedure for appeals of adjudication officer in
relation to employment equality and unfair dismissal cases the procedure for
appeals of compliance notices served on employers the procedure for appeals in
respect of other employment enactments and then the procedure to be followed at
the hearing itself the labor court rules they can be found on
the workplace relations commission website or simply do a simple google
search of labor court rules or indeed visit my website at private rights and
calm and there's an article there or a post there about appealing to the labor
court and it actually has a link in the article about the rules to be applied so
if you just go to my website and private rights Ireland calm do a simple search
for labor court and you should find the article so appeal is then in relation to
unfair dismissal and employment equality these would be probably the most common
appeals the appeal is commenced by using a standard form and a copy of the
adjudication officer decision three weeks later Daniel must submit your
written a submission which is then sent to the respondent and the respondent
then has three weeks to file or applying submission as I say the time of forty
two days within which you must bring your appeal can only be extended in
exceptional circumstances both parties are required to send in a pre-hearing
witness statements at least seven days in advance of the hearing these
statements should stay at the name of the witness a summary of the witnesses
evidence and copy documents which would be replied relied upon are the hearing
it's important to understand that the appeal heard by the labor court is a de
novo appeal that means that the labor court hears the case from scratch and
makes its own decision completely on influenced by the original decision of
the WRC adjudication officer so all both parties start from scratch and the
original decision has no influence on the labor court seven days in advance of
the hearing then you need to send in written submission six copies of saying
so the parties are expected to set out the facts which are agreed on an issue
the legal basis for the submission the remedy sought in the case of the
complainant and a transcript of the decisions or judgments relied upon so if
you are relying upon a particular case for example or a particular piece of
legislation as Authority for some property
putting forward on which you rely upon well then you need to have a copy of
that already in essence the parties are to set out their a case in foal and not
focus on the original decision of the WRC adjudication officer the conduct of
the hearing them it commences with the party bearing the burden of proof
reading his submission the respondent then reads his submission and the
parties are invited to comment on the others submission each party then
examines and cross-examines each side's witnesses are the court may have
questions for the witnesses parties can represent themselves are engaged the
services of a solicitor or a barrister hate your representative or whoever you
choose now I'm going to give you a big fattie slammer in relation to what I've
just said the conduct of the hearing is as a seller on screen there as parallel
rules however the chairman of the division sitting in the appeal has
enormous discretion as to how the thing is conducted and quite frankly it may
well happen that you will not get a chance to examine your own witness or
cross-examine the other witnesses and essentially is to say the Chairman will
very much run the show and determine how the thing is to be conducted the
Chairman is likely to ask questions and all members of the division are likely
to ask questions of some or all of the people in attendance that would be the
legal representatives and indeed witnesses if necessary but I have seen
situations and indeed have heard complaints from people who have brought
appeals to the labor court and who felt that it didn't get a fair shake or word
and ask questions or they didn't get to make their case but as I say there was a
huge amount of discretion with the Labour Court chairman as to how a
particular hearing is conducted and that's the situation as I say you can
check out the rules that I referred to earlier in this video and you can see
exactly how the thing may happen theoretically but the reality may be
different but the discretion is with the labor court chairman and itself in law
appeal is then from a determination of the labor court can go to the High Court
but on a point of law only not on a point to do with the facts or the
evidence or anything of that nature to do with a point of law or some mistake
perhaps that the labor court may have fallen into in hearing the appeal my
name is Terry Gauri that's me there on the screen and my contact details I hope
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