Kilkenny is one of our two offices, so an unfair dismissal solicitor in Kilkenny means exactly that: Mary Molloy Solicitors at 2 Rose Inn Street, Kilkenny, R95 W58D, in the city centre between High Street and John’s Bridge, open Monday to Friday 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM with out of hours appointments available. The county’s employment is agri-food, manufacturing and the public sector first, then the retail, tourism and hospitality trade of the city and the county towns, Callan, Thomastown, Castlecomer, Graiguenamanagh, Freshford and Urlingford among them, and the office also serves South East clients from Carlow, Tipperary, Wexford and Waterford in person. The forum for every one of those dismissals is the Workplace Relations Commission, applying the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2015. Most WRC hearings are listed at Lansdowne House, Lansdowne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, but the WRC also sits regionally and remote hearings are available unless the interests of justice require otherwise, so a Kilkenny employee rarely has to make the trip.
Unfair Dismissal Claims in Kilkenny
The agri-food sector produces a particular kind of dismissal: shift-based, seasonal, often short-service, and often informal, so the first questions are whether the employee has the one year of continuous service that section 2(1)(a) requires, whether any written probation period of a year or less takes the dismissal outside the Acts under section 3, and whether one of the section 6(2A) exceptions, pregnancy and family leave, union activity, a protected disclosure or minimum wage rights, waives the service requirement altogether. Where it does not, section 20(1) of the Industrial Relations Act 1969, the Employment Equality Acts and the notice owed under the Minimum Notice Acts remain. In the larger manufacturing plants the dismissal comes at the end of a documented process, and the questions are whether the stated ground is one of the fair grounds in section 6(4), whether the investigation and hearing matched the Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures (S.I. 146/2000), and whether the sanction was proportionate. In the public sector the pressure point is usually constructive dismissal: an employee worn down by a grievance process who resigns before it is finished, when the WRC expects the internal procedure to have been exhausted and places the burden of proving the employer’s conduct on the employee. In a county the size of Kilkenny the employer and the employee frequently know one another beyond the workplace, which is one reason free WRC mediation, offered before any hearing, resolves so many claims here.
The complaint goes in through the WRC eComplaint portal within six months of the date of dismissal, which section 1 fixes as the date notice expired or should have expired; section 8(2) permits an extension to twelve months only where reasonable cause prevented an earlier complaint, and neither an internal appeal nor negotiations count. If the case is heard rather than mediated, it is listed at Lansdowne House, at a regional sitting or remotely. The hearing is in public, the parties are named in the published decision unless special circumstances exist, evidence may be taken on oath, written submissions are due 15 working days beforehand, and the WRC awards no legal costs, so each side pays its own. Either party may appeal to the Labour Court within 42 days of the decision, which is a full re-hearing, and an unappealed decision must be carried out within 56 days, after which the District Court can enforce it.
Kilkenny clients can come into 2 Rose Inn Street, Kilkenny, R95 W58D, with the contract, the dismissal letter, the disciplinary correspondence and the payslips, or deal with the office by phone and Zoom; the Dublin office at The Ormond Building, 31-36 Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7, D07 EE37, is available for anyone working in the capital. Employers in Kilkenny and the South East defending a claim get the same analysis from the other side: whether the stated reason fits section 6(4), whether the record shows a procedure that matched S.I. 146/2000, and whether free WRC mediation or an early settlement makes more commercial sense than a public hearing. We never act for both sides of the same dispute.
How We Work With Kilkenny Clients
Dismissal claims run on documents, phone, Zoom and email — the contract, the dismissal letter, the disciplinary correspondence, the payslips — so distance costs nothing: we act for clients in every county from our Dublin and Kilkenny offices, and WRC hearings themselves are increasingly held remotely. The first consultation is the same wherever you are: your position on the documents, the realistic routes, and the six-month clock running on you. Start with the Dismissal Claim Route Finder, and check your own deadline on the WRC Deadline Calculator.
Mary Molloy Solicitors advise on employment law. Nothing on this page is advice on tax or on social welfare entitlements — take that advice separately. WRC procedure and time limits are strictly applied, and a late complaint is usually a lost complaint. Take advice before resigning, before signing anything, and before any deadline passes.
Dismissed or Forced Out in Kilkenny?
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