Protocol at Hearings
Although not an ordinary court of law, the Labour Court is a body whose functions include adjudication of industrial relations disputes and the administration of justice in the field of employment law.
The Court operates in a formal courtroom setting. Headquartered in Dublin, where the majority of hearings are held, the Court also utilises hotel meeting/conference rooms to conduct hearings in locations outside the capital.
On the day of a hearing, parties should arrive at the venue stipulated in their hearing notification correspondence, at least 20 minutes prior to the notified start time. Parties will, by that stage, have received prior contact from the Court Secretary assigned to the hearing and will have been given brief logistical instructions as regards arrival at the venue and locating the courtroom to meet the Court Secretary. Parties should proceed in accordance with the instructions of the Court Secretary, who will assist further as necessary prior to the arrival of the Court Division to the courtroom to commence the hearing.
The Court Secretary will (on the morning of the hearing and not before) provide parties with details of the names of the members of the Court Division hearing the case. A division of the Court is a 3-person tribunal comprised of: the Chairman or a deputy chairman; a workers’ member; an employers’ member.
During the hearing, the Chairman of the division, who will occupy the centre chair of the three chairs on the bench, may be addressed by you as ‘Chairman’ or ‘Chairperson’. The two ordinary members of the division may be addressed by you using the title ‘Ms.’ or ‘Mr.’, prefixing their surname as per the details provided to you.
The hearings are, as might be expected, conducted with certain formalities. Parties are expected to conduct themselves respectfully as befits the courtroom setting.
Formalities include a requirement that the parties and attendees at the hearing will stand as the Court Division enters and leaves the hearing room.
At the commencement of proceedings, the Court Secretary will signal the arrival of the Court Division to the courtroom and formally announce the case. The Division will take their seats and the Chairman of the Division will open the hearing.
The conduct of the hearing is the responsibility of the Chairman of the Division, who will regulate the proceedings throughout. Parties are not free to address one another directly during a hearing but must address any questions through the Chairman and members of the Court.
The procedure at a hearing typically takes the form of a number of phases, in sequence, as follows:
Phase 1: Reading of Written submissions
In advance of the hearing, parties will have provided, in accordance with the Court’s instructions, a written summary of their case which sets out their position on the facts of the case and any law applicable. Unless it is deemed convenient to take these written submissions as read, the parties will, in turn, stand and read the submissions which they have provided.
Phase 2: Comments on Written Submissions
The parties will then be given an opportunity to comment on each other’s submissions. This is not an invitation to repeat arguments already made in their own submission, but rather is an important discrete opportunity for parties to draw the Court’s attention to aspects of the opposing submission with which they disagree or wish to challenge. Ultimately, it is open to the Court to accept submissions which are unchallenged, either verbally at the invitation of the Court, via opposing written submission or via oral evidence subsequently.
Phase 3: Questions from the Members of the Court on Written Submissions
The members of the Court may address any questions to the parties to seek clarification or elaboration on anything contained within submissions.
Phase 4: Oral Evidence
Where a party chooses to offer evidence in an employment rights case (the Court does not hear witness evidence in industrial relations cases), witnesses will be sworn in and be subject to direct examination (questioning from the side who calls them as a witness), cross examination (questioning from the opposing side).
Phase 5: Questions from the Members of the Court on Oral Evidence
The members of the Court may address any questions to the witnesses to seek clarification of any unclear evidence or to complete the Court’s understanding of the evidence which has been adduced.
Phase 6: Closing
The Chairman may or may not invite closing submissions from the parties, including, in employment rights cases, any submissions on how the relevant law should be applied to the facts of the case if that has not been addressed by the parties in their written or oral submissions earlier in the hearing.
At this point, the Chairman will close the hearing, and the Court Division will exit the courtroom.
Parties will receive a written recommendation/decision usually within 3-6 weeks of the hearing date.
Unless specifically requested by the Chairman of the Division to, for example, submit further information or documentation, parties can have no further contact with the Court Division following the close of the hearing.
Following a period of deliberation, the written outcome will be compiled and issued by the Court Secretary.
Once the outcome has been issued, the Court’s file will be closed and no further contact with parties will normally be permitted. Occasionally however, parties may seek clarification of a Recommendation issued by the Court in an industrial relations case and such clarification may, in certain circumstances, be provided.
