WRC says Grace O’Connor’s late redundancy claims against Spar Express cannot proceed

The Workplace Relations Commission found it had no jurisdiction to consider Grace O’Connor’s redundancy and collective redundancy complaints against Spar Express because they were filed out of time. It also disallowed two duplicate redundancy appeals. The decision was dated 2 February 2024. O’Connor worked as a shop assistant until the Carlow shop closed in September 2019. She said she received neither notice or payment in lieu nor a redundancy payment. The WRC found that the redundancy claim was referred after the 52-week deadline and that her lack of awareness of the time limit did not establish reasonable cause to extend it. The WRC also found the two collective redundancy complaints were out of time. The merits were not decided because the claims were late.