México
Knowledge Base

Justified Dismissal

According to Article 47 of the Federal Labor Law, the following are causes for termination of the employment relationship, without liability for the employer:
• Deceiving the employee or, as the case may be, the union that had proposed or recommended him/her with false certificates or references in which the employee’s capacity, aptitudes, or faculties that he/she lacks are attributed to him/her. This cause for termination shall cease to have effect after thirty days of rendering services to the employee;
• Incurring the employee, during his/her work, in lack of probity or honesty, in acts of violence, threats, insults, or bad treatment against the employer, his/her family members, or the management or administrative personnel of the company or establishment, or against clients and suppliers of the employer, except when provoked or when acting in self-defense;
• The employee commits any of the acts listed in the preceding section against any of his co-workers if as a consequence of such acts the discipline of the place where the work is performed is disturbed;
• The employee commits, outside the service, against the employer, his family members, or administrative management personnel, any of the acts referred to in Section II, if they are so serious that they make it impossible to comply with the working relationship;
• Intentionally causing material damages to buildings, works, machinery, instruments, raw materials, and other work-related objects during the performance of the work or in connection therewith;
• Causing the worker the damages referred to in the preceding section, provided that they are serious, without malice, but with such negligence that it is the sole cause of the damage;
• Compromising the worker, by his imprudence or inexcusable carelessness, the safety of the establishment or of the persons who are in it;
• The employee commits immoral acts or acts of harassment and/or sexual harassment against any person in the establishment or workplace;
• Revealing trade secrets or disclosing matters of a reserved nature, to the detriment of the company; X. Disclosing the employee’s trade secrets or disclosing matters of a reserved nature, to the detriment of the company;
• Having the worker more than three absences of attendance in a period of thirty days, without permission of the employer or without justified cause; X. Having the worker more than three absences of attendance in a period of thirty days, without permission of the employer or without justified cause;
• The employee disobeys the employer or his representatives, without just cause, as long as the work is contracted;
• Refusal of the employee to adopt the preventive measures or to follow the procedures indicated to avoid accidents or illnesses;
• Attending work in a state of drunkenness or under the influence of any narcotic or enervating drug, unless, in the latter case, there is a medical prescription. Before starting work, the employee shall inform the employer of the fact and present the prescription signed by the physician;
• The enforceable sentence that imposes a prison sentence on the employee, which prevents him/her from fulfilling the working relationship;
• The lack of documents required by the laws and regulations, necessary for the rendering of the service when it is imputable to the worker and that exceeds the period referred to in section IV of article 43; and
• Those analogous to those established in the preceding sections, are equally serious and of similar consequences as far as labor is concerned. The employer who dismisses an employee must give him/her written notice in which he/she clearly states the conduct or conducts that motivate the termination and the date or dates on which they were committed.
The notice must be delivered personally to the employee at the time of dismissal or, alternatively, it must be communicated to the competent Conciliation and Arbitration Board within the following five business days, in which case the employer must provide the employee’s last registered address so that the authority may notify the employee personally.
The statute of limitations to exercise the actions derived from the dismissal will not begin to run until the employee personally receives the notice of termination.
The lack of notice to the employee personally or through the Board, by itself, will determine the unjustified dismissal and, consequently, the nullity of the dismissal.

Unjustified Dismissal

Anything that does not fall under Article 47 of the Federal Labor Law is considered unjustified (See justified dismissal). In this case a severance can be demanded by the worker.