Dismissal Without Cause: What to Do and How Your Severance Is Calculated

If you were dismissed without cause, your employer is required by law to pay you seniority severance equal to one month of salary per year worked (Art. 245 of the LCT, Argentina's Employment Contract Law), plus pay in lieu of notice, month integration pay and prorated items, within 4 business days. At Conti Abogados we calculate what you are really owed and demand payment in full anywhere in the City of Buenos Aires (CABA).

Immediate Action Checklist (First 48 Hours)

If you were notified of your dismissal or you are being kept out of your job, take these steps in strict order:

• 1. Do not sign any blank document, or any receipt "under protest" that waives rights: Anything you put in writing without legal supervision can be used against you.
• 2. Keep the original telegram or carta documento you received: The date and time the postal carrier delivered it is what starts the 4-business-day payment deadline.
• 3. Gather your last 12 payslips: They are essential to establish your highest regular and customary monthly salary (MRMNH), which is the base of the whole calculation.
• 4. Identify items settled incorrectly and cash paid in hand ("off the books"): Unreported travel allowances, regular bonuses and commissions all have to be added to the calculation base.
• 5. Consult a labor lawyer urgently, before the 4th business day: The rejection telegram or the payment demand has to be drafted with technical precision.

1. Items That Make Up Severance for a Dismissal Without Cause

Employment Contract Law No. 20,744 (LCT) sets out a fixed statutory compensation scheme that protects employees against arbitrary dismissal. These are the items your employer has to settle:

Seniority or Dismissal Severance (Article 245 LCT)

One month of salary for each year of service, or fraction greater than three months. The base is the highest regular and customary monthly salary you earned during your last year of work, or during your whole period of service if it was shorter.

Pay in Lieu of Notice (Articles 231 and 232 LCT)

If your employer did not give you written notice with the advance the law requires, it owes you:

• 15 days of salary if you were still in your probationary period.
• 1 month of salary if your seniority is under 5 years.
• 2 months of salary if your seniority is over 5 years.

Month Integration Pay (Article 233 LCT)

When the relationship ends on a day that is not the last day of the calendar month and no notice was given, your employer has to pay the remaining days until the current month is complete.

Salary Items in the Final Settlement

Whatever the reason for the termination, you are always entitled to the days actually worked that month, the prorated statutory year-end bonus (SAC, the Argentine aguinaldo) for the half-year, and prorated unused vacation with its vacation supplement (Art. 156 LCT).

2. How to Fight a Dismissal Built on a False Cause

A recurring employer tactic is to claim "loss of trust", "repeated breaches" or "poor performance" to dodge the severance payment. Under Argentine labor law, the burden of proving just cause falls exclusively on the company.

For a dismissal with cause to be legally valid, it has to meet three strict requirements:

• Causation and serious injury: The misconduct alleged has to be serious enough to make the relationship impossible to continue (Art. 242 LCT).
• Contemporaneity: The dismissal has to follow immediately after the event. Misconduct from months earlier cannot be invoked now.
• Invariability of the cause: Your employer is bound by the reasons written word for word into the telegram and cannot add new grounds afterwards (Art. 243 LCT).

Applicable Case Law: the Vizzoti Ruling

Art. 245 LCT caps the severance base using collective bargaining agreements. The Argentine Supreme Court, however, held in the landmark ruling "Vizzoti, Carlos Alberto v. AMSA S.A." (2004) that the agreement cap cannot cut more than 33% off the worker's real salary.