THE WAITING time for a hearing at the Employment Appeals Tribunal in Dublin almost doubled last year.
The number of cases coming before it has also almost doubled due to the recession.
According to figures released to The Irish Times by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, applicants in Dublin waited an average of 31 weeks for a hearing in 2009, up from 16 weeks in 2008.
In provincial areas the wait for a hearing was 32 weeks on average, a week longer than in 2008.
The longest wait for a hearing in provincial areas was 50 weeks in Cork while in Dublin the longest wait was 46 weeks.
The delays have been attributed to an increase in the number of cases coming before the tribunal; almost 10,000 in 2009 up from 5,500 in 2008, due to the increase in job losses. The tribunal is an independent body under the auspices of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
It adjudicates on employment rights under legislation including the Redundancy Payments Acts, the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts and the Unfair Dismissals Acts.
The increase in waiting time for hearings before the tribunal reversed a trend of reducing delays begun in 2006. At the time, applicants waited an average 27 weeks for a hearing in Dublin. In provincial areas, delays averaged 44 weeks in 2006.
There is also often a long delay between the beginning of a hearing and its completion. In a case opened at the tribunal in Dublin this week, the parties were told further days could not be scheduled until October at the earliest.
A spokeswoman for the tribunal said it had put in place a series of measures designed to increase output. These included listing more cases per hearing and sitting longer hours.
Productivity had increased by 26 per cent, the spokeswoman said, but so had waiting times because the number of claims remained at a very high level.
She said a pilot initiative would start in Cork at the end of June, to run for 13 weeks, to help tackle the delays.
