WRC says Eileen Grimes’s GAA club complaints were outside time limit

The Workplace Relations Commission found it had no jurisdiction to hear Eileen Grimes’s unfair-dismissal and holiday-pay complaints against St Marks GAA Club because they were submitted outside the statutory time limit. The decision was dated 15 August 2022; the merits were not decided. Grimes, a former bar manager, said the club told her in June 2020 that her job was redundant and later confirmed that her employment had ended. She submitted her complaints in October 2021, around 16 months after her dismissal. The claims concerned her dismissal and holiday and public-holiday pay for 2020. She argued that the time limit for her dismissal complaint should run from a July 2021 advertisement for a Clubhouse Manager role, and that Covid-19 restrictions had prevented her from filing sooner. The officer found the dismissal complaint concerned the dismissal itself, and did not accept that the restrictions impeded a timely complaint. Both complaints were found to be outside the time limit; the WRC did not decide whether the dismissal or pay claims were justified.