The WRC Six-Month Time Limit and Reasonable Cause

The WRC six-month time limit is the one rule in unfair dismissal law that no argument about the merits can get around. Section 8(2) of the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2015 requires a complaint within six months of the date of dismissal, allows an extension to twelve months only where reasonable cause prevented an earlier complaint, and allows nothing beyond that. This guide explains how the date of dismissal is fixed by section 1, what the six months means in practice, what reasonable cause can and cannot cover, and why the only safe approach is to lodge early.

1. The WRC Six-Month Time Limit in Section 8(2)

A claim for redress under the Unfair Dismissals Acts is made by presenting a complaint to the WRC within six months of the date of dismissal. Where the adjudication officer is satisfied that reasonable cause prevented the complaint being presented within that period, the period may be extended to twelve months. There is no further discretion. A complaint presented after twelve months cannot be heard, however strong it is, and a complaint presented between six and twelve months is heard only if the reasonable cause test is met first. The limit is applied as a preliminary issue, and an employer that spots a late complaint will raise it before anything else is argued. The WRC process from complaint to decision is set out on the practice page on WRC hearings and Labour Court appeals; this guide is about the date on which that process has to begin.

2. How Section 1 Fixes the Date of Dismissal

The six months runs from the date of dismissal, and section 1 of the Acts defines that date. Where notice of termination was given and it complied with the contract and with the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973-2005, the date of dismissal is the date on which that notice expires. Where no notice was given, or the notice given fell short of what the contract or the Minimum Notice Acts required, the date of dismissal is the date on which proper notice would have expired had it been given on the day of termination. The practical consequences are these:

• Notice properly given: the clock starts when the notice period ends, not when the letter is handed over. An employee given eight weeks’ notice has a date of dismissal eight weeks after the letter.
• Notice not given, or short: the clock starts on the date the correct notice would have run out, which is later than the day the employment ended.
• Pay in lieu: section 1 asks whether notice was given and expired, not whether it was paid. Pay in lieu of notice is permitted under the Minimum Notice Acts, but the date of dismissal is still the date the notice would have expired.

The rule therefore moves the date of dismissal later for an employee dismissed without notice, which gives slightly longer to lodge. It never moves it earlier. Treat it as a margin, not as the deadline.

3. No Notice Given: The Date Proper Notice Would Have Expired

Proper notice is the longer of the contractual notice and the statutory minimum. After 13 weeks’ service the Minimum Notice Acts require one week’s notice up to two years’ service, two weeks from two to five years, four weeks from five to ten, six weeks from ten to fifteen, and eight weeks from fifteen years. A contract that gives more applies instead. An employee with twelve years’ service dismissed on the spot with no notice and no pay in lieu therefore has a date of dismissal six weeks after the day they were sent home, and the six months runs from that later date. Two cautions. First, the employer may argue that summary dismissal for gross misconduct was justified, in which case notice was forfeited and the employer will say the date of dismissal is the day itself; do not let the whole claim depend on winning that argument. Second, the arithmetic is easy to get wrong under pressure. Work out both candidate dates on the day you are dismissed, diarise six months from the earlier one, and run the figures through the WRC Deadline Calculator.

4. What Six Months Means in Practice

The complaint is the form lodged through the WRC eComplaint portal, and the date the WRC receives it is the date that counts. Nothing else presents a complaint: not a letter to the employer, not a solicitor’s letter, not an internal appeal, not a request under section 14(4) for the written reasons, and not a referral to any other body. The form needs the correct statute selected and the date of dismissal stated, and the date you give is the one the adjudication officer will start from, so give the section 1 date and be ready to explain it. The six months is calculated by the calendar, and the end of the period is not extended because it falls on a weekend or a public holiday. A complaint lodged in the first few weeks after dismissal loses nothing by its speed: the hearing is months away, written submissions are not due until 15 working days before it, and the complaint can be amended, withdrawn or settled at any point.

5. Reasonable Cause: The Extension to Twelve Months

The extension in section 8(2) is available only where the adjudication officer is satisfied that reasonable cause prevented the complaint being presented within six months. Three features of that wording decide most applications. The cause must have prevented the complaint, not merely made it inconvenient or unattractive. It must cover the whole of the delay, so a cause that ended in month four does not explain a complaint lodged in month nine. And it is for the employee to prove with evidence, not to assert. In principle, the kinds of cause that can satisfy the test include:

• Illness that prevented action. A condition during the six months that made it impossible to deal with the matter, supported by medical evidence covering the period, as opposed to a certificate that post-dates the deadline.
• Incorrect information from the employer about the date. Where the employer told the employee that the employment had not ended, or that it would end on a later date than it did, and the employee relied on that, the employer’s own correspondence is the evidence.

Even where the cause is made out, the complaint must be lodged promptly once it ends. An employee who recovers in month five and lodges in month ten has reasonable cause for the first five months and none for the rest.

6. What Does Not Amount to Reasonable Cause

The reasons employees most often give for a late complaint are the reasons the extension does not cover, because none of them prevented an earlier complaint:

• Ignorance of the law. Not knowing that there was a time limit, or how long it was, is not reasonable cause.
• Waiting for an internal appeal. The appeal and the complaint run in parallel. The employer’s appeal process has no effect on the WRC clock.
• Waiting for a grievance outcome. The same applies to a grievance lodged before or after the dismissal.
• Negotiating. Discussions about a settlement, a reference or a return to work are not a reason to delay. If the talks succeed, the complaint is withdrawn; if they fail after the deadline, there is no complaint to pursue.

The pattern in each is the same: the employee chose to wait. The extension exists for the employee who could not act, not for the one who hoped not to have to.

7. Other Clocks Running at the Same Time

The six months is the main deadline but not the only one. Where the dismissal followed a protected disclosure, interim relief may be sought in the Circuit Court within 21 days of the dismissal or other penalisation, or such longer period as the Court allows, and that application has to be made long before any WRC complaint is heard. Once a complaint is lodged, written submissions are due 15 working days before the hearing, and what happens on the day is covered in our guide to what happens at a WRC hearing. After the decision, either party may appeal to the Labour Court within 42 days of the date of the decision, extendable only in exceptional circumstances, and an unappealed decision must be carried out within 56 days, after which the District Court can enforce it. Those later dates are explained in appealing a WRC decision to the Labour Court. Every one of them is counted from a fixed date.

8. File Early, and What Filing Does Not Prevent

Nothing is gained by waiting. Lodging the complaint inside the first weeks does not commit you to a hearing, does not end an internal appeal, and does not close off a settlement: the WRC offers mediation that is free, voluntary and confidential, and a complaint can be settled and withdrawn at any stage. What lodging does is remove the deadline from the employer’s side of the table, so that every later conversation happens with a live complaint in the background rather than an expiring one. Employers responding to a complaint check the dates before anything else, because a complaint outside the six months is a complete answer whatever the merits, and a reasonable cause application is contested on its evidence. We advise employers on exactly that preliminary point, and we never act for both sides of the same dispute.