Help against victimisation at work

Are you being treated unfairly in work? Is it because you tried to access your legal rights as an employee? If so, this is called victimisation and there are laws in place to protect you. All workers have rights, and seeking to avail of those rights isn’t something you should be punished for. 

Ways you can be victimised at work

Your boss can victimise you at work by:

• Unfairly dismissing you from your job
• Deliberately treating you unfairly in the workplace
• Deliberately targeting you for unfavorable changes to your work conditions
• Reducing your hours in work as punishment.

However, it’s only victimisation if any of these are being done because you tried to access your employment rights. If it’s being done for different reasons, it’s more likely to be workplace harassment or discrimination.

What to do if I’m being victimised at work

If you feel you are being victimised in the workplace you can make a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission. You will have to submit your complaint form within six months of the last time you were victimised or the day you were dismissed. Sometimes this can be extended to 12 months if you have a good reason for the delay.

Employment rights

The following are your main rights as a worker that you cannot be victimised for looking into, accessing or asking about:

• Access to the National Minimum Wage
• Making a complaint about health and safety standards to the Health and Safety Authority
• Taking or proposing to take carer’s leave
• Bringing a claim against your employer or giving evidence in proceedings against your employer under the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015
• Claiming your rights under the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 or the Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003
• Reporting breaches of the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012
• Whistleblowing when you suspect wrongdoing is going on in your place of work, under the terms of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014
• Giving evidence to the Gardaí relating to white collar crime.

Need more information?

We are here to answer your questions and talk through your options. Our online chat service is for 16 to 25 year olds and is available Monday to Friday, 4pm to 8pm. Chat to us now about your situation.

• Chat now to a trained Youth Information Officer
• Or leave us a message and we will email you back