Com Quantos Dias De Falta Da Justa Causa

Dismissal for cause due to absences: how many days is too many?

The CLT doesn't give you a number. Article 482, item "a", says that justified absence and unauthorized leave without the employer's permission is grounds for just cause. That's it. No "30 days equals dismissal." No "15 days equals dismissal." The law is intentionally vague because context matters more than counting. In practice, what you'll find in labor court judgments and in the daily operations of HR departments is a pattern. Employers tend to move toward dismissal when absences reach a level that makes business operations difficult to sustain. The courts then look at whether that level was reasonable in that specific situation.

Com quantos dias de falta da justa causa

Most labor judges and employment lawyers I've worked with treat the threshold somewhere between 15 and 30 unauthorized absences within a 12-month period as the point where dismissal becomes defensible, assuming the absences are unexplained and documented. But those numbers are rough. A company with seasonal demand might tolerate more scattered absences than a production line that stops when people don't show up. The operational impact is what the judge actually weighs. What matters legally is whether the absences are unjustified. A medical certificate changes everything. A verified emergency changes everything. The pattern changes everything.

Here's the counter-intuitive part that most employers get wrong: having fewer absences doesn't always protect you from losing a dismissal case, and having more doesn't guarantee a win. The reason is the principle of severity — the CLT requires that dismissal for cause be a last resort, proportionate to the offense. If you've never given a warning before and suddenly fire someone after 8 absences, a judge may see that as disproportionate even though 8 seems low. Conversely, if you've been documenting and warning consistently, 12 absences might be enough because the pattern and the escalation are clear. Another thing beginners miss: the difference between consecutive absences and scattered absences is treated very differently. Fifteen consecutive days without showing up is almost universally considered abandonment of position, which is clear-cut. Fifteen scattered days across a year looks more like a performance or attendance problem that usually requires progressive discipline. Jumping straight to dismissal for scattered absences without prior written warnings is where most companies lose.

Let me tell you about a case I handled a few years back. A manufacturing client had an employee with 18 absences over 10 months. Twelve were covered by medical certificates, but six were unexplained. The employer fired for just cause based on article 482, item "a". The employee sued, and during the hearing, it came out that the employer had never issued a single written warning despite three prior conversations with the supervisor on record. The judge found the dismissal unjustified and ordered reinstatement with back pay. The absences themselves weren't the problem — the lack of documented progressive discipline was. That case cost the company roughly four months of salary in reinstatement and legal fees. It was entirely avoidable with basic documentation. If you're an employer dealing with this, here's what actually works instead of reaching for termination immediately:

• Maintain a daily attendance register signed by the employee. Without this, your evidence is hearsay.
• Issue written warnings after the first or second unexcused absence. Date them. Have the employee sign acknowledgment. If they refuse to sign, note that on the document with a witness.
• Differentiate medical from non-medical absences. Don't count certified sickness days toward the dismissal threshold. Focus only on unauthorized absences.
• Track the operational impact. Document how each absence affected production, customer deadlines, or team workload. Judges respond to concrete business harm more than abstract frustration.
• Give a final warning before termination. This satisfies the proportionality requirement and makes your position much stronger in court.

If you're an employee facing dismissal for absences, your strongest defenses are usually: valid medical certificates you didn't submit on time due to reasonable circumstances, absences that were verbally approved by a supervisor, and any pattern of the employer accepting late submissions from other employees without consequence. Inconsistency in how attendance policy is enforced across the workforce is a real vulnerability in the employer's case. There are also several legitimate reasons for absence that the law protects and cannot be counted against you. Sick leave with a medical certificate, union activities, voting, family emergency up to a few days depending on the state regulation, and mourning leave are all protected. Check your specific collective bargaining agreement too, because many industry agreements add additional protections or modify how absences are counted.

The bottom line: there is no magic number. The courts look at the total pattern — justification status, prior warnings, operational impact, consistency of enforcement, and proportionality. If you're managing this situation, spend your energy on documentation and progressive discipline rather than counting days. The count is what the judge does, not what you should rely on as a decision-maker.