What is Just Cause for Dismissal?
Employment agreements ususally contain a clause which permits the employer to dismiss an employee for “just cause”. The employment agreement would normally include a clause permitting just cause dismissal as an implied term, that is an unwritten term that the law says should be included in the mutual obligations of employee and employer. Just Cause is a legal term that allows an employer to terminate without providing either reasonable notice or payment instead of notice (sometimes called payment in lieu of notice”). There is no clearly established method of determining what will constitute just cause. Courts focus closely on the particular alleged misconduct to decide if it is sufficient to dismiss an employee without reasonable notice. The primary inquiry is whether the employee’s misconduct caused a breakdown in the employment relationship, by either violating an essential condition of the employment contract, or destroying the employer’s inherent faith in the employee. If the emplo
In general, an employee who is terminated for just cause is not entitled to receive notice of their dismissal, or severance pay in lieu of notice. Additionally, the employee may not qualify for employment insurance. As a result, occasionally employers will allege that they have terminated an employee for just cause, and use it as the basis to refuse to provide a severance package to the dismissed employee. Although an employer may make a just cause allegation, the onus rests with the employer to prove that the employee’s conduct satisfies the strict legal test for just cause. Usually, the employer must prove that the employee engaged in serious misconduct. Common examples of just cause include stealing, poor performance, persistent lateness, conflict of interest, or breach of an employer’s policy. Merely because an employer alleges just cause, does not mean that a court will ultimately agree. The courts have established very strict tests that the employer must satisfy in order to deny
