I was dismissed after one year of service what can i do?
Short answer
In Quebec, a complaint for dismissal without good and sufficient cause requires 2 years of uninterrupted service. With less than 2 years, two other avenues remain: a complaint for a prohibited practice with the CNESST (Quebec's labour standards, health and safety board), within 45 days, if the dismissal is connected with exercising a right provided for by the Act, and a civil action based on reasonable notice of termination (art. 2091 of the Civil Code of Québec).
In detail
A complaint for a prohibited practice requires no seniority. It covers cases where the employer penalizes a person because they exercised a right: refusing overtime beyond the legal ceilings, being absent for illness or family obligations, being pregnant, having given information to the CNESST, having refused to work beyond the age of retirement, among others (s. 122).
This complaint has one important advantage: if the person shows that they exercised a right and that they were penalized shortly afterwards, a presumption operates in their favour. It is then up to the employer to show that the measure rests on another cause, one that is serious and genuine.
The civil action, for its part, does not contest the reason for the dismissal but the fact that sufficient notice of termination was not given. It is brought before the courts of general jurisdiction — the Court of Québec, Small Claims Division, if the amount claimed is $15,000 or less.
What to document
The date of the dismissal, the chronology of the events that preceded it — an absence, a complaint, an announced pregnancy, a refusal of hours — with their exact dates, the reasons the employer gave, the termination letter, and your disciplinary file. The closeness in time between exercising a right and being penalized is what makes the presumption operate.
Put your facts in writing, free. Writing your version down early, keeping your documents dated and preparing your questions for a lawyer: the tool is there to document, never to advise.
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Official sources
- Act respecting labour standards (CQLR, c. N-1.1) — Légis Québec
- CNESST — Recourses and grounds for complaints under the labour standards (PDF)
- Civil Code of Québec (CQLR, c. CCQ-1991) — Légis Québec
- Tribunal administratif du travail — Reprisals for exercising a right or a civic responsibility provided for in certain Acts
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What this page is not
This is general legal information about the law of Quebec and Canada, dated and sourced. It is not legal advice, not a strategy, and not a prediction about the outcome of a case. In Quebec, only lawyers and notaries may give legal advice (Act respecting the Barreau du Québec, ss. 128 and 133). Laws and amounts change: the official source always prevails over us.