Six months to bring it. Your access went on day one.
A complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission must normally be brought within six months of the dismissal. The Commission can extend that to twelve months, but only where you show reasonable cause, and it applies the test strictly. In the same first week the work email is switched off, the rostering system stops loading and somebody quietly removes you from the team chat.
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Roster · week of 6 July
Captured 12 Jul 2026, 21:40 UTC, two days before the dismissal.
Access denied
This account has been disabled. Contact your administrator.
Captured & sealed
SHA-256 · Bitcoin timestamp
Illustrative example. Fictional roster, fictional employer.
WRC claims are decided on documents that live in systems you are about to lose access to. A complaint must normally be presented within six months of the date of dismissal. The Commission may extend that period by a further six months, to twelve in total, but only where the complainant shows reasonable cause for the delay. That test replaced the older and harsher exceptional circumstances standard, and it is still applied strictly: an adjudication officer cannot hear a claim that is out of time and unexcused, however strong its merits. The evidence that decides these cases is ordinary: the team chat, the roster changes, the performance emails, the message sent late at night, the social post about your replacement. ProofSnap captures each of those as a package containing the full page, the saved source, the URL, the UTC capture time, a SHA-256 hash of every file, an RSA-4096 signature and an eIDAS qualified timestamp, which in Ireland carries the Article 41 presumption directly. Documents have to be with the adjudication officer, and copied to the other side, at least 15 working days before the hearing, and since Zalewski v Adjudication Officer [2021] IESC 24 those hearings are held in public and the decisions name the parties. It works the same way for employers defending a claim. From $4.99 (approx. €4.30) as a one-off.
By Radim Motycka, Founder and Lead Engineer, ProofSnap · · Independently verifiable via Trust Verifier
What disappears in the first week
Losing the job and losing the evidence happen the same afternoon
The systems holding your proof belong to the employer, and the clock starts the moment you walk out.
Accounts are switched off immediately
Work email, the intranet, the rostering system and the HR portal usually stop working the same day. Anything you meant to save later is behind a door you cannot open, and you cannot compel access before you have even lodged.
Somebody removes you from the group
The team chat where the roster changed, the shift was refused or the comment was made is often the strongest evidence in the file. Removal from the group can take the history with it, and messages deleted for everyone leave nothing behind.
Six months, and it is applied strictly
An extension to twelve months needs reasonable cause, and the Commission does not grant it as a matter of course. Time spent hunting for evidence you no longer have comes straight out of the window you have.
The deadlines and how they are applied
These are the fixed points. They decide whether your claim is heard at all, which comes before any argument about whether it is right.
Six months from the dismissal
The complaint must normally be presented to the Workplace Relations Commission within six months of the date of dismissal. That is the default and it is the date you should work to.
Twelve months, for reasonable cause only
The period can be extended by a further six months where the complainant shows reasonable cause for the delay. The standard was lowered from exceptional circumstances, but reasonable cause still has to be established and it is not granted automatically.
Out of time means not heard
An adjudication officer has no discretion to hear a claim that is out of time where reasonable cause is not shown. That is why the deadline is worth more attention than the merits in the first fortnight.
Employers are in the same position
If you are defending a claim, preserve the record before the employee accounts are deprovisioned and before anyone tidies a channel. A record made at the time of the decision is worth considerably more than one assembled after the complaint arrives.
Fifteen working days before the hearing
Documentary evidence must go to the adjudication officer, with a copy to the other party, at least 15 working days before the scheduled hearing date. Whether anything later is admitted is a matter for the adjudication officer, so treat that date as the real deadline.
The hearing is public and the decision names you
Since the Supreme Court decision in Zalewski v Adjudication Officer [2021] IESC 24, WRC hearings are held in public, evidence may be given on oath or affirmation, and published decisions name the parties. What you file is what the record will say.
Capture this in your first hour, before anything else
Work through it in order of how fast it will vanish: the team chat and any direct messages with your manager, then the rostering or scheduling system, then anything still open in a browser tab from the work account, then the performance emails if you can still reach them, then any public post about the role or your replacement. Do not delete or edit anything, and do not access systems you have been told you may no longer use. Capture what you can lawfully see, and let your solicitor or trade union deal with the rest.
How do I capture work messages before my access is cut?
No forensic training required. The proof is in the package, not in your testimony about how careful you were.
Capture what is still open
Anything visible in your browser can be captured, including web versions of messaging services and any work systems still signed in. The whole page is saved, not just the visible window.
Each capture carries its own proof
SHA-256 hashes, an RSA-4096 signature over the manifest, an eIDAS qualified timestamp and a Bitcoin blockchain anchor, so the capture time is independent of your computer and cannot be moved.
Lodge inside the six months
Submit the complaint form to the WRC within the period and keep the ZIP. If the matter goes to adjudication, the record is already in a form the other side can verify.
What is in a WRC evidence package?
Between 11 and 15 files depending on your plan, delivered as one ZIP that anyone can check without installing anything.
Full-page screenshot
The whole page, not just the visible window, stitched and hashed.
Saved page source
The document as rendered at capture time, including the head, meta tags and structured data.
Extracted page text
Searchable plain text, so a quote can be found and cited without retyping.
Technical metadata
URL, page title, HTTP response headers, browser, operating system and the capture time in UTC.
Signed manifest
SHA-256 for every file, signed with an RSA-4096 key whose public key ships in the package.
Blockchain timestamp
The manifest hash anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps, so the capture time cannot be backdated.
Chain of custody and forensic log
A record of what happened during the capture, in the order it happened.
Evidence report as PDF
A readable summary you can attach to an application, a notice or a report.
Verification instructions
Written steps plus scripts, so the other side can re-check the hashes offline.
Where all of that comes from
Every file above is produced by one press in the side panel, while your login still works. Rosters, payslips, the warning email, the team chat you were removed from: each one takes about as long as reading it.
Six months sounds generous until you realise the access goes on day one, so the useful order is capture first and decide later whether any of it matters.
Want to see what comes out before you install anything? Download a sample evidence package and open it yourself.
Anyone can verify it, including the other side. Drop the ZIP onto the public Trust Verifier and the hashes, the signature and the timestamp are checked in the browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing depends on ProofSnap still existing.
Three ways to get the evidence
Prices are charged in USD. Approximate euro figures are shown for orientation only, and your card issuer sets the actual rate.
One dispute
$4.99 once
approx. €4.30
A SnapPack is a single up-front purchase for a set number of captures. No subscription, no auto-renewal, no trial. Best when you have one problem and you want it documented today.
Get a SnapPackOngoing matters
$8.99/month
approx. €7.80
For anyone who captures regularly: practitioners, property managers, HR, investigators. The 7-day free trial requires a credit card. Cancel any time during the trial and you are not charged.
Start the 7-day trialWe do it for you
$44.99 per URL
approx. €39
Send us the link and our team captures the package for you, with nothing to install. Useful when the capture should not come from a party to the dispute.
See the capture serviceProofSnap is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Qualified timestamps are issued by Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List. Ireland applies eIDAS directly as an EU member state, so that timestamp carries the Article 41 presumption here without any retained-law argument.
Official sources
Every figure and deadline on this page comes from the following primary sources. Check them yourself rather than taking our word for it.
- Workplace Relations Commission how to make a complaint and how adjudication works.
- Citizens Information: unfair dismissal the plain-language summary of your rights and the time limits.
- WRC procedures in the adjudication of complaints the 15 working day rule for documentary evidence and the conduct of public hearings.
- Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 the founding statute, as amended through to 2015.
If the conduct also involved intimate images or threats, see the guide to reporting under Coco’s Law, which runs on a criminal track and a takedown track at the same time. The standard of proof is the balance of probabilities, and in an unfair dismissal claim the burden generally sits on the employer to show that the dismissal was fair. That does not help you if the messages proving what actually happened have been deleted, which is why the first hour matters more than the sixth month.
Questions people actually ask
Six months, and the first week is the one that matters
Capture what you can still reach today. The rest of the case can wait until tomorrow.