Is the dismissal with good cause?

If you are dismissed, the reason for dismissing you must be with due cause if you fulfil a length of service requirement. Always contact HK to get an assessment of your dismissal.

As an employee, you are entitled to safe and fair employment terms. That e.g. means that your superior cannot dismiss you just because he or she has a bad day or would like to give the job to somebody else.

Your employer must prove that you are dismissed for objective reasons – with due cause. If the employer cannot do so, you may ultimately receive compensation for unfair dismissal.

But you must have been employed by the enterprise for at least 9 to 12 months to be entitled to an unfair dismissal case. Whether it is 9 months depends on if there is a collective agreement in your enterprise, and if the collective agreement is subject to the general agreement between DA and LO. In the absence of any general agreement, the Danish Salaried Employees Act applies, under which the length of service requirement is 12 months.

Objective reasons

Even if your dismissal looks objective on paper, it is important that the reasoning reflects the actual situation.
For example, if you are dismissed and someone else is hired for the same job, or if you have been dismissed while another job that you can perform becomes vacant somewhere else in the enterprise.
Therefore, you should always obtain an assessment of the dismissal from HK.

 

The enterprise

  • Redundancies
  • Savings and rationalisation
  • Organisational changes and reorganisation

You as an employee

Lack of qualifications
As an employee, you may be in the situation that job assignments cease to exist and new are added, and therefore your qualifications are not needed.
But your employer is responsible for ensuring that you receive additional training on an ongoing basis, so that you maintain your "market value" on the labour market. Therefore, in case of a dismissal, whether you have actually had the possibility of updating your skills, and whether you have refused offers of additional education, etc. are factors that play an important part.

Sickness
You cannot be dismissed because you have the flu for one week. But if you get seriously ill and are absent for a long period, or if you are sick very often, the employer may base the dismissal on that. Read more at sygeguide.dk (sickness guide).
If you are covered by the 120-day rule, your employer can dismiss you at shorter notice, 1 month, if you have been off sick more than 120 days within 12 months.
It is important to remember that you must be dismissed as soon as you have reached the 120 days of sickness. Your employer cannot, a month later, dismiss you with reference to the 120-days rule.

Cooperation problems
Dismissal due to cooperation problems is rather tricky, because it may be difficult to establish where things went wrong in the cooperation.
But before your employer dismisses you for that reason, he or she is obliged to try to help you make things work. First, they must invite you for an interview or perhaps give you a written warning.
But generally, the employer must be able to show that you are the reason for the cooperation problems, and that you either would not or could not improve the cooperation.

NB! Dismissal due to cooperation problems may give you problems in relation to the unemployment fund.