A WRC hearing: what happens before, on the day and after

A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) hearing is where an adjudication officer listens to you and your employer, looks at the documents, and decides your complaint under the Act you ticked on the form. It is less formal than a court and more formal than a meeting. People who have been through one usually say the same two things afterwards: it was more orderly than they feared, and they wished they had prepared their documents earlier. This guide covers the three stages: before, the day, and after.

If you have not yet lodged, read the time limit guide first, and the complaint form guide for the form itself: the hearing only happens if the complaint is in time.

Before the hearing

What happens after you lodge

The WRC acknowledges the complaint and sends a copy to the employer, who is invited to reply in writing. You are usually offered mediation at this point; it is free, voluntary and confidential, and the mediation guide explains whether it suits your case. If mediation is declined or does not settle the matter, the complaint goes to adjudication and you receive a hearing notice with a date, a time and a venue, or a video link for a remote hearing.

In 2025 the WRC received 10,559 applications, up 44% on 2024, containing 19,068 individual complaints. Pay complaints were 26% of the total, unfair dismissal 17% and equality 14%. The median wait from lodging to a first hearing was 133 days in January 2025 and 174 days by December. Plan for several months between lodging and the hearing date, and use them.

Submissions

The hearing notice asks each side to send a written submission and the documents they rely on, usually a set number of days before the hearing, with a copy to the other side. A submission is not a legal essay. The adjudicator wants:

• What happened, in date order, in your own words.
• Which Act you are complaining under and what the employer did that you say breached it.
• What you are asking for: your job back, arrears of pay, compensation for loss, or a declaration.
• The documents that prove the dates and the figures.

For an unfair dismissal complaint the adjudicator will also want to know what you have done since to find work and what you have earned, because compensation under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015 is for financial loss actually caused by the dismissal, up to 104 weeks' remuneration, and the Act expects you to have mitigated it. A list of applications made, interviews attended and any new job with its start date and pay does more for a claim than a page of argument.

Documents

Bring the originals and three copies of everything: one for you, one for the adjudicator, one for the employer. The documents that decide most cases are ordinary ones:

If the employer holds records you need, such as working time records or your personnel file, ask for them in writing in advance. A data access request under data protection law gets you your personal data within a month, and an adjudicator can draw conclusions when an employer who is legally required to keep records cannot produce them.

Witnesses

You can bring witnesses, and you should tell the WRC and the other side who they are in advance. A witness is useful where something was said or done that is not in a document: a colleague who heard the remark, a person who was in the meeting. A witness who only confirms your opinion of the employer adds nothing. Witnesses give evidence on oath or affirmation, like you, and can be cross-examined.

Representation

You can represent yourself, or bring a union official, a solicitor, a barrister, a family member or a colleague. Many complainants represent themselves and the adjudicator explains the process as it goes. The WRC awards no costs to either side, so a solicitor's fee is yours to pay whatever the outcome; the solicitor guide sets out when one earns that fee and when they do not. If you are in a union, the union represents you at no charge.

On the day

A public hearing

Since the Supreme Court's decision in Zalewski in 2021, WRC adjudication hearings are generally held in public and decisions are published with the parties' names. Public means that other people may sit in; in practice a hearing room usually holds the parties, their representatives, witnesses, and occasionally a journalist or a law student. The adjudicator can hear all or part of a case in private where special circumstances justify it, and some categories of complaint remain anonymised in the published decision. If you want privacy, ask in writing before the hearing and say why.

Who is in the room

The adjudication officer sits at the top of the room, alone. There is no jury, no registrar and no clerk calling the case. The adjudicator opens by confirming who is present, which complaints are before them, and whether any are being withdrawn or added. If you have several complaints under several Acts, they are usually heard together.

Evidence on oath

Since 2021 evidence of fact is given on oath or affirmation, and knowingly giving false evidence is an offence. This changed the character of hearings: people are more careful, and the adjudicator can give more weight to what is said. You will be asked to take the oath or affirm before you give your account.

The order of evidence

In an unfair dismissal case the employer goes first, because the Act puts the burden on the employer to show the dismissal was fair. In a constructive dismissal case you go first, because the burden is on you to show that resigning was reasonable. In most other complaints, including pay, working time and equality, you go first as the complainant and set out the facts you rely on; in an equality case, once you have shown facts from which discrimination can be inferred, the burden shifts to the employer to prove otherwise.

Each witness gives their evidence, is cross-examined by the other side, and can be re-examined briefly on anything new that came up. The adjudicator asks questions throughout and may ask most of them.

Cross-examination

Cross-examination is the other side asking your witnesses questions, and you or your representative asking theirs. It is not an argument. The questions that help are short, about facts and documents, and asked one at a time: "Is that your signature?", "What date did you send that?", "Where is the record of that warning?" Questions that start with "Is it not the case that you..." and run for a paragraph rarely get a useful answer.

If you are representing yourself, write your questions out beforehand, listen to the answers, and do not argue with the witness. The adjudicator will have noticed what you noticed.

The adjudicator's role

The adjudicator runs the hearing, decides what is relevant, and can take evidence in whatever order makes sense. They are not on either side and they are not there to advise you, but they will explain what is happening and will not let an unrepresented party be ambushed on procedure. They will often ask at the end whether the parties want to explore a settlement; you can say no.

Remote hearings

Some hearings are held by video. The process is the same, the oath is the same, and the documents must have been exchanged in advance because nothing can be handed across a table. Find a quiet room, test the link the day before, and have your documents numbered so everyone can find page 14 when you refer to it.

What to bring

• Your submission and the documents, three copies, numbered.
• The hearing notice.
• A pen and paper: you will want to note what witnesses say.
• Your job search record and figures for any loss, if the complaint is about dismissal.
• Water. Hearings run to lunch and sometimes beyond.

Dress as you would for a job interview. Nobody is marked on it, but it signals that you take the day seriously, and that is noticed.

After the hearing

The decision

The adjudicator does not decide on the day. A written decision is sent to both parties some weeks after the hearing. It sets out the complaint, each side's evidence, the adjudicator's findings of fact, the law applied and the result: well founded or not well founded, and if well founded what the employer must do and by when. The decisions guide explains how to read one and what awards under each Act look like, and the awards register collects reported figures.

Publication and naming

Decisions are published on the WRC's decisions database with an ADJ reference number and, in most categories, the names of the parties. Anonymisation applies in some categories and where the adjudicator decides special circumstances require it. Once published, a decision can be found by anyone who searches your name or your employer's, which is one of the things people weigh when they consider mediation.

Appeal

Either side can appeal to the Labour Court within 42 days of the date of the decision, where the case is heard again in full. There is no fee, except a €300 fee where the appellant did not attend the WRC hearing without good cause. The Labour Court guide covers it.

Enforcement

If the employer does not do what the decision says and does not appeal, the decision is enforced through the District Court, which can order compliance and treat compensation as a judgment debt. The WRC itself does not collect the money.

Where this leaves you

The hearing is decided on documents and dates more than on speeches, and the case file builder turns what you have into the ordered, numbered bundle an adjudicator can work with. Start it the day you lodge, not the week before the hearing.

If you are in a union, ring them first: union officials attend WRC hearings every week and will represent you at no charge. How unions work at the WRC. If you are not in a union and the case involves discrimination, a large financial loss or an employer with a legal team, a solicitor can tell you in one conversation whether representation is worth its cost in your case.