Appealing a WRC Decision to the Labour Court

Appealing a WRC decision is a right either party has, and it runs on a short clock. A decision of an adjudication officer under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2015 may be appealed to the Labour Court within 42 days of the date of the decision, extendable only in exceptional circumstances. The appeal is a full re-hearing rather than a review of the first decision, and the Labour Court’s own decision can be taken further only to the High Court, on a point of law. Where nobody appeals, the employer has 56 days to carry out the decision, after which the District Court can enforce it. This guide takes each of those steps in turn, explains who pays for them, and sets out how an employee and an employer should each weigh the decision to appeal.

1. Appealing a WRC Decision: The 42 Days

The period is 42 days from the date of the WRC decision. Three features of that sentence matter. First, it is the date of the decision, not the date it was received or read, so the count starts on the day printed on the document. Second, it applies to both parties: the employee who lost and the employer who lost have the same 42 days, and the employee who won has the same 42 days to wait before knowing whether the award is final. Third, the extension is available only in exceptional circumstances. That is a narrower test than the reasonable-cause extension from six to twelve months that applies to the original complaint, which is explained in the WRC six-month time limit and reasonable cause, and the working assumption should be that a late appeal will not be admitted. The date of the decision goes in the diary on the day it issues, with day 42 marked beside it.

2. What a Full Re-hearing Means

The Labour Court does not sit to find fault with the adjudication officer. It hears the case again and decides it for itself. That has consequences for both sides which are easy to underestimate:

• The evidence is given again. Witnesses who gave evidence at the WRC give it again; documents that went in at the first hearing go in again; a witness who was not called the first time can be called now;
• The burden is the same. Under section 6(1) a dismissal is deemed unfair unless the employer shows substantial grounds justifying it, and that burden sits on the employer at the Labour Court as it did at the WRC;
• The whole claim is open. An appeal is not confined to the part of the decision the appellant dislikes. A party who was content with the first decision and did not appeal must still meet the entire case again;
• The outcome can reverse. An employee who won at the WRC can lose at the Labour Court, and an employee who lost can win. The first decision carries no presumption either way;
• All three section 7 orders are available. The Labour Court can order reinstatement, re-engagement or compensation for financial loss attributable to the dismissal, up to 104 weeks’ remuneration, or 260 weeks where the dismissal resulted from a protected disclosure.

The practical point is that an appeal is a second trial of the same case, which is why the first hearing should be prepared as if it were the only one. What that first hearing involves, from the complaint form to the written decision, is set out in what happens at a WRC hearing.

3. The High Court: A Point of Law Only

A further appeal lies from the Labour Court to the High Court, but only on a point of law. The High Court does not hold a third hearing of the facts. It will not revisit which witness was believed, whether the investigation was thorough enough on the evidence, or how the compensation was measured on the figures. A point of law is a question about the legal test the Labour Court applied or the way it applied it: how the date of dismissal was fixed under section 1, whether the one-year service requirement in section 2(1)(a) applied, whether a section 6(2A) exception was engaged, or whether the Labour Court asked itself the right question under section 6. Most dismissal cases turn on fact rather than law, which is why the route is narrow in practice. The position on costs in the High Court differs from the WRC and the Labour Court and should be discussed before any further appeal is contemplated.

4. No Appeal: 56 Days and the District Court

Where no appeal is lodged within the 42 days, the decision stands and the obligation to comply with it begins. The employer has 56 days to carry out the decision: to pay the compensation, to reinstate the employee or to re-engage them on the terms ordered. After the 56 days have passed, the District Court can enforce the decision. For an employee holding an unappealed award, the sequence is simple and should be followed in writing: a letter after day 42 noting that no appeal has been lodged and asking for compliance within the 56 days, proof of delivery, and a move to enforcement on the day the period expires. An employer that lets both periods pass without appealing or paying has given up the merits and is left only with enforcement. Nothing in the enforcement step reopens the question of whether the dismissal was unfair.

5. Costs at the WRC and the Labour Court

Neither the WRC nor the Labour Court awards legal costs. Each side pays its own, whatever the result. That rule shapes the appeal decision for both parties in the same way: an appeal is a decision about your own spend and time, measured against what a re-hearing could realistically change, and not about exposure to the other side’s bill. It also means that a party who won at the WRC does not recover what the first hearing cost, and that an appeal by the other side imposes a second round of cost on the winner with no prospect of recovering it. The firm’s initial consultation is a fixed fee, payable in advance, set out on our fees page, and the first question in it, for a client on either side of a WRC decision, is whether an appeal is worth that spend at all.

6. Strategy for the Employee

An employee who has won should assume the employer will consider an appeal and should use the 42 days accordingly. The award is not final until day 42 passes without an appeal, so it should not be spent or relied on before then. Mitigation does not end at the WRC hearing: compensation under section 7 is measured by financial loss attributable to the dismissal, the employee must mitigate that loss by seeking work, and a Labour Court hearing some months later will measure the loss afresh, so the dated job search record, the payslips and the terms of any new job must be kept up throughout. An employee who lost should ask what the first decision turned on. A finding that the employer’s process was adequate on the evidence, or that one witness was preferred to another, is the kind of finding a full re-hearing can change, particularly if a document was not produced or a witness was not called. A finding that the complaint was out of time, or that the one-year service requirement applied, is a legal conclusion that a second hearing of the same facts is unlikely to move. Settlement remains possible at any stage.

7. Strategy for the Employer

The firm defends claims for employers as well as bringing them, through its employer defence practice, and never acts for both sides of the same dispute. The analysis for an employer that has lost is the mirror image of the employee’s. A full re-hearing allows the case to be run properly where it was not: the investigation file in order, the decision-maker giving evidence, the policy and its communication proved. It also gives the employee a second run, and the hearing is in public with the parties named in the published decision unless special circumstances exist. An employer that has won should remember that the employee’s appeal reopens everything, so the file should be kept intact and the witnesses kept available for the 42 days and beyond. An employer that does not appeal has 56 days to comply, and the cost of ignoring that period is District Court enforcement rather than any further argument on the merits.

8. The Dates to Diarise

Every stage of a dismissal claim is a deadline, and the appeal stage adds two more to the one that started the case:

• Six months from the date of dismissal for the original WRC complaint, extendable to twelve months for reasonable cause under section 8(2). The WRC Deadline Calculator fixes that date from your notice position;
• Day 42 from the date of the WRC decision for either party’s appeal to the Labour Court, extendable only in exceptional circumstances;
• Day 56 from the date of the decision for the employer to carry out an unappealed decision, after which the District Court can enforce it.

The full sequence from complaint to enforcement, including mediation, submissions and the hearing itself, is on the practice page on WRC hearings and Labour Court appeals. Whichever side of a decision you are on, the day it issues is the day to count forward from.