Chapter 3 of 10 · The WRC · 7 of 7
WRC time limit: the six months, reasonable cause and the twelve-month bar
Checked 13 Oct 2026the employment Acts as amended.
You have six months from the contravention to lodge a WRC complaint, twelve with reasonable cause and never longer. When the clock starts for dismissal, pay, equality and leave complaints.
Written for employees. This guide covers the Republic of Ireland.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) time limit is the one rule in Irish employment law that forgives nothing. A complaint lodged a day late needs an excuse the adjudicator accepts; a complaint lodged more than twelve months late cannot be heard at all, however strong it is. This guide explains how the six months are counted, when the clock starts for each kind of complaint, what "reasonable cause" has meant in practice, and the separate limits that catch people out: the two-month ES1 notification and the 42 days to the Labour Court.
If you only have a minute: find the date of the thing you are complaining about, go to the deadline checker, and lodge the form before the date it gives you. Everything else can be fixed later. The date cannot.
The six months, and why they end a day early
The Workplace Relations Act 2015 says a complaint must be presented to the WRC within six months "beginning on" the date of the contravention. Because the period begins on the day of the contravention itself, it ends the day before the six-month anniversary, not on it.
So if you were dismissed on 10 March, the six months begin on 10 March and the last safe day is 9 September. If you lodge on 10 September you are one day out of time and you need reasonable cause.
The WRC counts the date it receives the complaint form, not the date you posted it, printed it or started filling it in. The online form, which the complaint form guide walks through, gives you an acknowledgement with a date on it; keep it. If the online form will not submit, the WRC publishes a PDF version and the Infoline on 0818 80 80 90 can tell you where to send it.
There is no fee, and lodging does not commit you to a hearing. Most people lodge first and think afterwards, because lodging stops the clock and nothing else does.
When the clock starts, by complaint
The six months run from the date of the contravention. That is a different date for each kind of complaint, and the mistakes people make are nearly always here.
| Complaint | The clock starts on |
|---|---|
| Unfair dismissal | The date the dismissal takes effect: the day your notice ends, or the day you were let go if there was no notice |
| Constructive dismissal | The day your resignation takes effect |
| Unpaid wages or an unlawful deduction | Each pay day on which the money should have been paid and was not |
| Discrimination, harassment, victimisation at work | The date of the act, or the most recent act in a series |
| Annual leave, public holidays, breaks, hours | The date leave or pay was refused, or the most recent breach |
| No written statement of terms | The contravention continues while the statement is missing |
| Minimum notice not paid | The date the notice pay should have been paid |
Two points matter more than the rest.
First, for a dismissal the clock does not start when you are told. It starts when the employment ends. If you were given four weeks' notice on 1 June and worked it, the dismissal took effect on 29 June and the six months run from then. If you were paid in lieu and sent home on 1 June, the date is 1 June. If you are not sure which applies to you, treat the earlier date as the one that counts and lodge by it.
Second, for pay the six months do not run from the first underpayment. They run from each pay day. A complaint can reach back six months of pay days from the date you lodge, which is why waiting costs you money as well as time: every week you wait, the oldest pay day drops out of reach.
Continuing contraventions
Where the same breach happens again and again, the WRC treats each occurrence as its own contravention and the clock runs from the most recent one. That helps you in one way and limits you in another.
It helps because a complaint about something still happening is almost never out of time. If your employer has never paid a Sunday premium, the most recent Sunday is inside the six months.
It limits you because the WRC can only award for the period inside the limit. Three years of missing Sunday premium becomes six months of it, or twelve with reasonable cause. The older losses are not recoverable at the WRC, whatever the employer did. That is the reason this site repeats the same line in every pay guide: lodge now, and let the adjudicator sort out the figures.
The Payment of Wages Act 1991 and the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 both work this way. The unpaid wages guide and the payslips and deductions guide show what the six months mean for a typical pay complaint.
Reasonable cause: what has counted and what has not
Between six and twelve months the adjudicator can extend the limit if you show reasonable cause for the delay. The test the Labour Court has applied for many years asks two things of the reason you give: it must explain the delay, and it must be a reason that would have stopped a reasonable person in your position from lodging in time. The reason also has to cover the whole delay, not just part of it.
What has tended to count:
- A serious illness or hospitalisation that genuinely prevented you from dealing with the matter.
- A bereavement or crisis in the family during the relevant weeks.
- Being actively misled by the employer about a date, a payment or whether the employment had ended.
- A complaint lodged in time but against the wrong legal entity, where the mistake was reasonable and corrected promptly.
What has rarely counted on its own:
- Not knowing the time limit or the law. The WRC expects people to find out.
- Waiting for an internal grievance or appeal to finish. The two run in parallel; an internal process does not pause the six months.
- Waiting for a solicitor, a union or Citizens Information to reply. Lodging is free and takes an evening; the adjudicator will ask why you did not.
- Hoping the employer would pay up, or being in talks with the employer.
- Stress or upset on its own, without medical evidence that it prevented you from acting.
None of these is a fixed rule. Adjudicators decide each case on its facts, and the same reason can succeed with evidence and fail without it. If you are already past six months, lodge today anyway and set out the reason for the delay in the form, with dates and any documents, because the adjudicator decides the extension from what you give them.
The twelve-month bar
After twelve months there is no discretion. The Act does not let an adjudicator hear a complaint presented more than twelve months after the contravention, whatever the reason for the delay. Illness, bad advice, a missing employer: none of it reaches a complaint that is more than a year old.
The only questions left at that point are whether a later contravention of the same kind is inside the limit (the continuing-breach point above), and whether a different claim exists in a different forum. A breach of contract claim in the civil courts, for example, has its own, longer limitation period, and a solicitor would tell you whether that route is open. The WRC itself will not.
Equal status complaints: the ES1 within two months
Discrimination at work goes under the Employment Equality Acts and follows the six months above with no notification step. Discrimination by a shop, a service, a landlord or a school goes under the Equal Status Acts and has an extra hurdle: you must notify the respondent in writing, usually on the ES1 form, within two months of the incident, before the complaint can be referred to the WRC. The six months to lodge still apply on top.
People searching "wrc time limit" are sometimes looking for this rule, and it is the one that is most often missed because it comes first. If your complaint is about a service rather than a job, the two months are your first deadline, not the six.
The 42 days to the Labour Court
Once the WRC issues a decision, either side can appeal to the Labour Court. The appeal must be lodged within 42 days of the date of the decision, and the Labour Court can extend that only in exceptional circumstances. There is no fee, except a €300 fee where the person appealing did not attend the WRC hearing without good cause.
The 42 days count from the date on the decision, not the date you read it. The Labour Court guide covers the form, the re-hearing and what the Court can do with a decision.
The WRC's own wait is not your clock
The time limit runs against you. The WRC's own timetable does not. In 2025 the WRC received 10,559 applications, up 44% on the year before, carrying 19,068 separate complaints, and the median wait from lodging to a first hearing rose from 133 days in January 2025 to 174 days by December. That wait is the WRC's problem, not yours: once the form is in, your complaint is in time no matter how long the hearing takes to arrive.
The practical effect is that you may wait five or six months for a hearing after lodging. Use the time. The hearing guide explains what to gather, and the mediation guide explains the offer that usually arrives first. If you want to know what decisions have looked like in similar cases, the decisions guide and the awards register are the place to start.
Three habits that protect the date
- Write the date down the day it happens. The date of dismissal, the pay day that was short, the date leave was refused. Put it in a note on your phone with the words "WRC six months from here".
- Lodge before you are ready. The form asks for a short description, not a submission. You can send documents and a fuller account later. A thin complaint in time beats a perfect one out of time.
- Keep every acknowledgement. The WRC's email, the Infoline reference, the postal receipt. If a date is ever disputed, these decide it.
Where this leaves you
The only question that matters this week is whether you are inside the six months, and the WRC deadline checker answers it from the date of the contravention and the kind of complaint. If you are past six months, the checker tells you whether you are still inside the twelve and what the form needs to say about the delay.
If you are in a union, ring them first: a union official lodges complaints for members every week and knows which date the adjudicator will use. How unions work at the WRC. If you are not in a union and the sums or the facts are complicated, a solicitor can review your dates before you lodge, but do not let the review push you past the deadline. Lodge, then ask.
Frequently asked questions
What is the WRC time limit?
Six months from the date of the contravention you are complaining about, under the Workplace Relations Act 2015. An adjudicator can extend that to twelve months if you show reasonable cause for the delay. Nothing can be extended beyond twelve months, whatever the reason.
What is the WRC claim time limit for unpaid wages?
Each pay day on which you were underpaid is its own contravention, so the six months run from each one. A complaint lodged today can reach back six months of pay days, or twelve with reasonable cause, but no further. Older pay days are out of time even if the underpayment is continuing.
Can the WRC time limit be extended?
Only from six months to twelve, and only where you show reasonable cause: a reason that explains the delay and would have stopped a reasonable person lodging in time. Not knowing the law, or waiting for the employer to sort it out internally, are rarely enough on their own.
Does the six months run from my last day or from when I was told?
For a dismissal, the clock runs from the date the dismissal takes effect: the day your notice ends, or the day you were let go if there was no notice. It does not run from the day you were told, unless that was also your last day.
What happens if I lodge a day late?
The adjudicator has no discretion inside the six months and limited discretion between six and twelve: you must show reasonable cause for the delay. A complaint lodged after twelve months cannot be heard at all, so the date the WRC receives your form is the date that counts.