Most people arrive at the Workplace Relations Commission knowing they have a complaint and knowing very little else. They have heard the word “adjudication” and pictured a courtroom. It is not one, but it is not informal either.
The WRC handles the bulk of unfair dismissal claims in Ireland. The process was built to be reachable without a solicitor. That is genuinely true and it is also incomplete, because how you present the case still shapes the outcome. If you are still working out whether you have a claim at all, start with Think you’ve been unfairly dismissed? Read this first.
The employer has to prove the dismissal was fair. That does not mean you can turn up with nothing.
Two things decide whether you have a claim worth bringing
Both are worth settling before you fill in a form.
The first is service. Most employees need twelve months of continuous service to bring a standard unfair dismissal claim, though a set of exceptions removes that requirement entirely, including dismissal for trade union membership, pregnancy, or making a protected disclosure.
The second is the paper trail. Warning letters, invitation letters to disciplinary meetings, meeting notes, the dismissal letter itself, and any appeal correspondence. Gather it before memory and access to your work email both disappear.
The three stages
You submit a complaint form to the WRC setting out the basis of your claim. This is not a formality. The form frames the case the adjudication officer will hear, and what you leave out of it can be harder to introduce later.
An adjudication officer hears both sides, takes evidence, and puts questions to each party. Hearings are held in public since the Supreme Court decision in Zalewski v Adjudication Officer (2021), and evidence may be given under oath.
The officer is testing two separate things. Did the employer have a fair reason? And did they follow a fair procedure in reaching the decision? An employer who had a genuine reason but ran a shambolic process can still lose.
The officer issues a written decision. Where a claim succeeds, the remedy is compensation, reinstatement to the old role, or re-engagement on new terms.
Compensation is capped at two years’ gross remuneration and is calculated on actual financial loss, which is why what you did to find new work after the dismissal becomes part of the case.
A claim must generally be brought within six months. That extends to twelve months only where you can show reasonable cause for the delay, and “I was waiting to see how things went” is not reasonable cause.
This is where otherwise strong claims fall down. If you think you were unfairly dismissed, the clock is already running — read this first.
What a solicitor actually adds
You can run a WRC claim yourself and plenty of people do. Where advice earns its cost is in the assessment before you file: whether the twelve-month service requirement applies to you, whether the employer’s procedural failures are the kind an officer will treat as fatal, and what your loss actually comes to once mitigation is factored in.
At Oak Legal you deal with Jason Burke directly. You get a straight read on the strength of the case at the outset, including when the honest answer is that it is weak.