Short answer. The list is not closed. Article 282 names four specific just causes for dismissal, then adds "other causes analogous to the foregoing" — meaning an employer cannot invent an unrelated ground, but a cause genuinely comparable in gravity to the four named ones can also justify termination.
What the law says
Other causes analogous to the foregoing.
Labor Code, Article 282 — Just Causes For Dismissal. Read the full provision →
The four causes the article names
Article 282 lists four specific just causes an employer may terminate an employee for: "serious misconduct or willful disobedience by the employee of the lawful orders of his employer or representative in connection with his work," "gross and habitual neglect by the employee of his duties," "fraud or willful breach by the employee of the trust reposed in him," and "commission of a crime or offense by the employee against the person of his employer" or immediate family members. These four set the baseline of what the article treats as serious enough to justify dismissal.
The fifth item is not a blank check
After the four named causes, the article adds a fifth: "other causes analogous to the foregoing." This is what makes the list open rather than closed — but the word analogous ties any additional cause back to the character of the four causes actually named. It is not an invitation for an employer to invent an unrelated ground and call it just; the added cause has to resemble, in gravity and nature, the serious misconduct, gross neglect, fraud, or criminal conduct the article already spells out.
Why "analogous" is doing real work here
By naming four specific, serious kinds of conduct and then adding a category tied to them by the word analogous, the article signals that the fifth category is not open-ended in an unlimited sense — it is bounded by comparison to the others. A ground unrelated to misconduct, neglect, fraud, or a criminal act against the employer does not become a just cause simply because an employer labels it one; it has to actually be comparable to what the article names.
The practical takeaway
So the answer sits between the two extremes the question poses: the list is not exhaustively limited to only the four named causes, because the article itself opens the door to analogous conduct. But it is also not open to whatever an employer decides to call serious. Any cause outside the four named ones still has to be measured against them for a genuine resemblance before it can count as a just cause under this article. It is also worth keeping this list separate from grounds tied to the business itself, such as redundancy or closure, which sit under an entirely different provision with its own requirements and are not measured against this article's analogous-cause test at all.