Can My Employer Fire Me for Just Cause in Alberta?

What “just cause” means in Alberta employment law

“Just cause” is the legal label for misconduct serious enough that an employer can end the employment relationship immediately, without the notice or pay that would otherwise be owed. Under the Employment Standards Code, no termination notice or termination pay is required where just cause exists. The Government of Alberta’s Employment Standards Tool Kit describes just cause as conduct “serious enough (either on its own or combined with other incidents)” to justify ending the relationship without warning pay. This is a narrow legal test, not a label an employer can apply just because it is unhappy with an employee’s work.

Alberta courts apply the same contextual test the Supreme Court of Canada set out for the whole country: whether the employee’s conduct caused a breakdown in the employment relationship such that it can no longer viably continue. The Alberta Court of Appeal has applied this test to dishonesty specifically, holding that where an employee’s dishonesty makes continued employment impossible, the employer has just cause with no notice and no damages owed.

How Alberta courts decide whether just cause exists

A single incident of misconduct does not automatically establish just cause. A recent Alberta Court of King’s Bench decision put it directly: “a finding of misconduct does not, in itself, give rise to just cause for termination.” The core question the court asks is whether the employee’s behaviour was serious enough that the employment relationship could no longer viably continue, not simply whether the employee did something wrong.

The burden of proving this rests entirely with the employer. The Employment Standards Tool Kit is explicit that the employer must show more than dissatisfaction with an employee’s performance; poor performance reviews or occasional mistakes, on their own, generally will not meet the threshold. An employee does not need to disprove anything; the employer has to affirmatively establish the case.

Progressive discipline: the usual first step

For most kinds of misconduct, Alberta guidance expects an employer to have used progressive discipline, meaning written warnings and a real opportunity to correct the behaviour, before dismissal for cause. ALIS, a Government of Alberta resource, states this plainly: “For most infractions, an employee must receive written warnings prior to being fired.” The same source confirms that just cause “has to be shown or proven,” it is not simply asserted by the employer.

There is an exception. Where the misconduct is severe enough on its own, such as serious dishonesty that destroys the trust the employment relationship depends on, courts have found that the relationship is already broken and no warning period could realistically have fixed it. That is why the Court of Appeal’s dishonesty finding above did not turn on whether warnings were given first.

What just cause does not override

A just-cause dismissal does not put an employer outside Alberta’s human rights protections. ALIS confirms that “when your employer lets you go for just cause, they must ensure your rights under the Alberta Human Rights Act are met.” In practice, this means an employer cannot rely on a manufactured or pretextual misconduct claim to disguise a dismissal that is actually connected to a protected ground such as disability, age, or family status.

It is also worth separating two different consequences. Losing the just-cause argument does not mean the employee automatically wins damages; it means the dismissal is reclassified as without cause, which then triggers the Code’s ordinary notice or termination pay rules, or a common-law reasonable notice claim, depending on the circumstances. Whether a specific set of facts meets the just-cause threshold is a fact-heavy legal question, and an employee or employer facing a live dismissal decision would need to look at the particular conduct, warnings given (if any), and the employee’s role and record against this test.