What happens to employment insurance if I lose my job before returning from maternity/childcare leave?
This is a frequently asked question parenting groupinquired Social media or posed employment lawyer Canadian parents are increasingly finding themselves in this situation. Cooling labor market And there are mass layoffs in several sectors, including the media and technology industries.
“I’ve never seen a layoff like this in my life, and we’ve been doing this for 20 years,” Alison Venditti, a human resources expert in Toronto, told CBC News.She is also the founder of the advocacy group working mothersCanada’s largest organization for working mothers, with 7,500 members.
Venditti said companies are cutting staff, and parents on vacation aren’t immune.
In fact, when companies lay off employees because of economic problems, they are more willing to let go of employees on protected leave, says Osgood, managing partner at Toronto employment law firm Monkhouse Law and York University.・Hall adjunct professor Andrew Monkhouse said. Toronto Law School.
“It’s a deep-seated problem in Canada,” he said in an interview.
This can put new parents in financial trouble. The current federal Employment Insurance (EI) system does not allow parents to combine unemployment benefits with parental leave benefits. Critics are calling for a review of the system.
On Thursday, new Democratic lawmaker Daniel Blaikie sent a letter to Employment Minister Randy Boissonneau calling for immediate changes to the current EI rules, calling them “punitive and discriminatory.”
“Canadian women have waited a long time for justice in the employment insurance system,” Blakey wrote in a letter to Boissonneau, adding, “I just want this to happen.”
In a statement emailed to CBC News, Boissonneau said the federal government could not comment on the details because the matter is currently before the courts.
“Our government will always stand up to give everyone the job security they deserve,” he said.
“Big challenge”
Jennifer Extens of Chrysler, Ont., said she was about 10 months into her 18-month maternity leave in January when she received a notice of immediate layoff due to restructuring.
Extens, 39, who was a brand manager, said she contacted Employment and Social Development Canada about two weeks later to update her on the situation. She said her EI income was immediately stopped, with the explanation that she would receive severance pay and that severance pay would be considered income and that she could not receive EI benefits at the same time.
“I was really shocked. I never expected to spend my maternity leave with no income,” she said in an interview. “I will never get back the time I spend with my kids, and instead of enjoying every moment, I feel anxious and stressed every day.”
Retirement allowance is recorded as income On the EI website.
Extens said she also must repay two EI payments she received after losing her job. It was a “huge challenge” considering the cost of groceries and diapers.
“If I were a single parent, or if my partner didn’t give us a ride, I have no idea what I would do to put food on the table.”
A woman was denied employment insurance benefits shortly after being laid off after maternity leave because she had not worked long enough to qualify. Critics say this discriminates against parents and are calling on the government to change the EI system.
EI overhaul
It is a common misconception that you cannot lose your job while on maternity or paternity leave. This is because if you are fired for reasons unrelated to your leave of absence, you can legally lose your job.
“It’s always common, but it’s also not illegal,” Venditti said.
Workers who pay into the system must work a certain number of hours to qualify for benefits, and must do so each time they make a new claim. This means that a new mother who loses her job and files a claim for her regular EI benefits will have to work the new required hours to earn her full parental leave entitlement.
In 2022, then-Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said that the inability to stack unemployment benefits and parental leave benefits into one EI claim created fairness issues in the system, especially for new mothers. She said she is looking for ways to make the system less inconvenient to address inequities.
The Liberal government said it was committed. to modernize the program.As part of that consultationIn a survey of Canadians by the Employment and Social Development Agency of Canada, 89 per cent of respondents said that parents who lost their jobs “before having children” received EI benefits for unemployment without affecting childbirth or EI. Agreed that money should be available. Parent benefits.
Venditti said this type of review takes time.
Ms Monkhouse said the problem was in the structure of the system and that maternity leave was part of EI. Therefore, if someone is away on maternity leave, he uses up his EI quota, unlike workers who are generally laid off.
“People on maternity leave, primarily women, have a disproportionate impact on subsequent EI acquisition,” she said.
According to , mothers take maternity or paternity leave almost twice as often as fathers. Statistics Canada.
Unemployment due to maternity or paternity leave is common but not often talked about, Venditti said, adding that one reason may be that parents filing lawsuits often have to sign non-disclosure agreements. Ta.
But she said more women, especially in senior positions, were being made redundant.
“The penalties of motherhood are real,” she said. “People always think they’re protected until it happens to them.”
