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LAURA* (NOT HER real name) worked for a company for several years before she became involved in a dispute with her colleagues.
She tried to get her employer to intervene, but to no avail, and she felt quite bullied in the situation she was in.
Laura made contact with a solicitor who lodged a case with the Equality Tribunal (which is under the remit of the Workplace Relations Commission – the WRC).
She has since left her job but now, four years on, she hasn’t had an adjudication in her case and says hasn’t even been told when it will be brought forward.
After changes were made to the how the WRC hears claims in late-2015, all new cases are processed under a “streamlined” service but there are still hundreds of cases, like Laura’s, that are left in limbo waiting years to be heard.
Streamlined service
In late 2015, then-Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton said that the streamlined service being implemented at the WRC would reduce waiting times for cases to be resolved.
This service involved the effective abolition of the Equality Tribunal and now all cases that would have previously applied to that area are heard by the WRC Adjudication Service.
Instead of five separate workplace relations bodies – including the Labour Relations Commission, the Rights Commissioners Service and the Labour Court – as had previously been the case, Bruton aimed to unite them all under the WRC banner to create a single body to process a claim from start to finish.
All claims made to the Equality Tribunal before 1 October 2015 are now under the remit of this Adjudication Service.
Among the targets proposed by Bruton was a commitment to “reduce waiting times with a target of three months from the time of complaint to hearing, with decisions issued on average within four months of complaints being submitted”.
By putting all industrial relations under one umbrella adjudication service, and then to an-expanded Labour Court if a decision is appealed, Bruton said the move would reduce costs and increase times by cutting out extra layers of red tape that had previously led to delays in industrial relations cases.
According to WRC figures for the 12 months to 30 September 2016, a total of 892 “legacy cases” – cases referred to the Equality Tribunal before October 2015 – are still awaiting a hearing.
The WRC says in its report that “it is now taking on average between three and four months from submission to complaint to initial hearing date and an average of six to eight weeks for a decision to issue.
A key early target is to halve the latter period. In terms of ‘legacy’ cases it is anticipated that these will be dealt with within a year.
Laura believes that, after waiting four years already, the WRC needs to say why these cases have not been heard yet.
In response to a request from TheJournal.ie, the WRC said that, since October 2015, the Adjudication Service has “processed all new employment rights and equality claims” while also “continuing the processing of the ‘legacy’ cases inherited from the former Equality Tribunal”.
It added:
Since 1 June 2016 to now there have been 181 hearings of these legacy Equality Tribunal cases and a total of 147 decisions have been issued. A further 66 cases were dismissed, for non-pursuit or because they were considered misconceived… The WRC intends to deal with all legacy cases in 2017.
So, taking the contents of their September report (892 legacy cases) and the 147 decisions since June, there are still at least around 700 cases waiting at least a year and a half for a decision to be reached.
If 147 decisions have been issued in the past nine months, it could take four years to adjudicate upon the rest of these legacy cases if they are processed at the same rate.
Former Siptu official Dermot O’Loughlin told TheJournal.ie that a lot of the cases being heard by the adjudication service are quite complex, and the backlog could increase before numbers eventually go down.
He said: “It’s going to get worse, with more cases piling in now on top of that backlog. We could be heading towards a chaos.”
He added that the WRC may have changed how it operates, but the persistence of delays for some people showed that little had changed.
It’s rebranded itself, but there’s nothing more slick going on here.
Laura said she is especially frustrated at this situation given the apparent low number of cases that have actually been adjudicated upon that were filed under the now-defunct Equality Tribunal in recent times, which you can check on the WRC website.
Although this is significantly higher than it may first appear, the search function of the website makes it hard to track down how many of these legacy cases have been actually heard.
Negative Impact
After the dispute in work arose, Laura left her role with the company. She was unable to find work, claiming that many employers in the sector had switched to hiring Jobbridge interns at the time.
The bank wanted my house. I had loads of debts. I’d never suffered from anxiety before, but I started to the longer this went on. I was left in the situation where I didn’t know what was going on and the uncertainty on when this case would be heard really started to negatively affect me.
In terms of contact with the WRC, Laura said that she’d only received one letter from them in the past four years – and that was two weeks ago.
“All the letter said was that they’ve got a backlog. That was clear already,” she said.
Until the case gets heard, she said that she will not be able to close the chapter on her experience in this “toxic environment”.
“Not knowing what’s going on is horrible,” she added. “You’re living with this situation every single day, just waiting for it to be resolved.
I’m just lucky that I had no one depending on me. I’m sure there’s other people out there who may have been waiting as long that have children and families to provide for. It’s just not right.
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Interesting language used in the article. Terrorists are called rebels. The Syrian government is called the Syrian regime. It’s always good to hear what the ‘independent’ British backed Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have to say. It would be interesting to see the reaction of the ‘West’ if the Russians/Chinese started labelling the protesters in Paris as ‘freedom fighters’, started supporting them directly/indirectly in order to disrupt/displace the Macron government, met with them on the streets shaking hands and spurring them on, protested aggressive government actions on ‘peaceful protests’, etc a la Maidan in Kiev.
@Conor Treacy: Nail on head,
But sure it is no wonder the language used in these articles when they are all copied and pasted from AFP which is a French Government controlled news association.
@Pixie McMullen: Oh look, someone else who thinks ‘state-owned’ and ‘state-controlled’ are the same thing. Just because the two are mutually inclusive where you’re concerted, it doesn’t mean the same applies everywhere else.
@Harry Whitehead: Leave Harry’s terrorists alone. Did u not read yesterday that the english don’t consider ISIS a major threat anymore. Russia is the big bad wolf now. Saudi Arabia having killed 48,000 children in Yemen year to date are considered Harry and englands ally.
@Cal Mooney: “The English”? There hasn’t been an English state since the 1700s. Try and keep up Wally. And I’m still waiting for your examples of my having defended the Saudo regime.
Who to believe??….the Russians or Al-Qaeda.
@Derek Durkin: Neither!
@Derek Durkin: Maybe if you and Charliegrl80 took your head out of the western media and read some other news sources you would both have a better understanding of what`s going on, but i won`t hold my breath on either of you bothering, keep drinking the Koolaid.
@Pixie McMullen: Bore off comrade. RT’s that way, you’re on the wrong site.
@Harry Whitehead: Ah, There you are Harry, throwing in your pearls of wisdom as always..
For a bloke with a bio saying he is interested in history, politics, linguistics and current affairs, It is pretty laughable when all your actions on this site are always just little wisecracks, insults or comments with no substance.
@Derek Durkin: President Assad used chlorine, bombing civilians. The Russians, Assad’s ally, then use this to justify attacking a rebel group.
@Pixie McMullen: “For a bloke with…” blah blah blah. Didn’t you say more or less exactly the same thing a while back, comrade?
@Ryan Dub: So you are telling me that the Syrian army moved into the terrorists positions, fired a load of chlorine filled missiles on their own civilians into an area they hold, then moved back out giving the positions back to the Jihadis who waited patiently for the Russian air force to show up?
Where do you buy your weed? It seems to be a lot better than anything i can get.
@Pixie McMullen: “read some other news sources”
Translation: read something which refuses to criticise our Glorious Leader or his Aliies under ANY circumstance.
@Harry Whitehead: You really should be put in between 2 fingers and squeezed………like any other whitehead
@Pixie McMullen: For a bloke who whines about “wisecracks, insults or comments with no substance” you sure have a funny knack for farting them out yourself. Making whitehead jokes though? That’s lame even by your pisspoor standards.
@Harry Whitehead: You triggered hon?
Not very nice when you slag someone off who turns out to be better at slagging than yourself, is it?
Go have a wee lie down and a good cry
@Pixie McMullen: “turns out to be better at slagging” no comrade, that’s kinda the whole point. Never mind though, you keep telling yourself you’re Oscar Wilde reborn. Attaboy.
@Harry Whitehead: Harry grow up and drop the comrade crap, you come across clueless
@Michael Eric Devine: “Sorry, this content isn’t available right now” Mighty fine coincidence there, wouldn’t you say?
@Harry Whitehead: He has the Idiot blocker activated on his Facebook profile, That`s why you can`t see it `arry
@Harry Whitehead: you are such a damn cliche. You have to be an especially arrogant and delusional person to believe Russian agents are being paid to argue against you (the hint is you don’t have an actual argument you’re just slinging shit)
The absolute neck on you telling someone who raised a valid point the ‘other side’ is that way. You may have picked your side and chosen to unquestionably swallow all it presents, that’s entirely on you.
You’re everything that’s wrong with debate in 2018
@Michael Eric Devine: “Cliche!” squawked someone from with a fake profile and a kneekerk defensive reaction to anyone dissing Uncle Vlad and his pet regimes. LOLz
@Harry Whitehead: Harry give up responding you really are just making a fool of yourself
@Ryan Dub: if chlorine was used why have loads of people moved back into east ghouta
when chlorine bombs are used it makes houses uninhabitable for years
Russia’s RT broadcast claims that French special forces were involved in the attact…
“French special forces on the ground from where the missiles were fired”
Now Russia, conviently, has Casus belli to begin it’s Idlib campaign.
@Ryan Dub: army of islam and hayat tahrir al sham
the media for some reason never mentions these terrorists groups names.
they also infight alot and regularly change their names
The last real legitimate rebel groups you could say, not the islamic jihad groups in idlib, surrendered under reconciliation agreements in june the only requirement was to hand over heavy weapons and ieds they were let keep their ak47s and mgs and most took the offer to integrate themselves in to a syrian army division as they weren’t active in fighting for 2 years.
@David Jordan: Conveniently???
They have held off for the last 2 months after a ceasefire was brokered, The headhackers haven`t lived up to their part of the ceasefire, firing indiscriminately and refusing to relinquish the heave weaponry and move out of the buffer zone Turkey helped set up.
Russia and the SAA have every right to go on the offensive, as they are the only 2 legitimate forces in this war, but of course, you know all this already
I can`t wait to see the French and US Tomahawk missiles to start raining down on these headhacking western backed terrorists over the use of chemical weapons…..
@Pixie McMullen: Russia’s RT broadcast claims that French special forces were involved in the attact. This is grade A conspiracy rubbish.
“French special forces on the ground from where the missiles were fired”
Now Russia the Syrian government, conviently, have Casus belli to begin it’s Idlib / West Aleppo campaign. Russia and Syrian government forces have started bombing West Aleppo, breaking a months long ceasefire.
https://youtu.be/ApIhgFVa6-A?t=78
https://twitter.com/dannymakkisyria/status/1066647370115571713?s=21
@David Jordan: And you know this to be rubbish because……
Russia warned of chemical weapon in the hands of jihadis time and again over the last few months, there are reports that one terrorist group attacked another and took 2 cannisters of Chlorine from them a few weeks back, there are reports of chemical weapons being smuggled in over the turkish border to be used…
It wouldn`t surprise me in the slightest if this report is true, UK, US and French ALL have special forces on the ground in Syria, and have done for quite a few years now
@Pixie McMullen: for what it’s worth, the syriancivilwar sub on reddit which is pro-Syrian government and pro-Russia, is very skeptical that an attack actually took place. West Aleppo has been bombed by Syrian government and Russia for the first time in 75 days in response.
@David Jordan: Odd then that “The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”, which has been relentlessly on the side of the “rebels” are confirming the chlorine attack.
@brendan fitzsimons: They didn’t confirm a chlorine attack, they reported on claims of a chlorine attack. Anyway, here we are a few days later, and still no proof that a chlorine attack happened. No dead, no chlorine cannisters, no results of an independent investigation. 1the OPCW and UN have not been asked to investigate – Russia has gone quiet on the story, it’s now all forgotten about as if it didn’t happen. News later on suggests people panicked.
BBC and the Guardian still hold onto myth that these rebels are moderate and not Al Queada or IS….Within a few years of start of civil war the rebels became radical Sunni Jahadi backed by Saudi… Qatar and the US….
The Russian Federation is not the same as the Communist led USSR. Under Putin, Russia has reinvigorated her Christian soul. The Western democracies can’t handle that. Where we in the West are witnessing constant attacks on Christianity, the same cannot be said about Russia.
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