I meet employers on a regular basis who are faced with what they believe are frivolous, unfounded, “nuisance” employment claims at the Workplace Relations Commission.
Merely because an employer believes a claim has no merit does not mean that that’s the case.
However, in my experience a small number of claims are not well founded and bound to fail.
The problem for the employer, however, is they still have to devote time, attention, and resources to dealing with the claim. Regardless of how unlikely the claim is to succeed.
In these cases, the employer may try to settle or buy off the case with a small, ‘nuisance’ type offer.
Often the offer is not accepted, regardless of how futile the claim is from the perspective of being upheld and well founded.
The ease with which the WRC claim can be submitted, and the fact that anyone can complete the form online, is probably a factor in these types of claims.
Learn more about employment law in Ireland in my book.
