People commonly lose their job on maternity or parental leave. Critics say EI needs an overhaul
What happens to your em‐ ployment insurance when you lose your job before re‐ turning from a maternity or parental leave?
It's a question often asked in parenting groups, queried on social media or posed to employment lawyers as Cana‐ dian parents increasingly find themselves in this situation amid a cooling labour market and mass layoffs in several sectors, such as media and the tech industry.
"I've never seen layoffs like this in my life, and I've been doing this for 20 years," Alli‐ son Venditti, a human re‐ sources expert in Toronto, told CBC News. She's also the founder of advocacy group Moms at Work, Canada's largest organization for work‐ ing mothers, with 7,500 mem‐ bers.
Companies are cutting ranks, Venditti said, and par‐ ents who are on leave aren't immune.
In fact, when companies are laying off employees due to economic issues, they feel more open to laying off those who are on protected leave, said Andrew Monkhouse, managing partner at Toronto employment law firm Monkhouse Law and an ad‐ junct professor at York Uni‐ versity's Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.
"It's a persistent problem in Canada," he said in an inter‐ view.
And that can leave new parents in a financial lurch. Under the current federal em‐ ployment insurance (EI) sys‐ tem, parents cannot combine unemployment and parental leave benefits. That has critics calling for an overhaul of the system.
On Thursday, New Demo‐ crat MP Daniel Blaikie sent a letter urging Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault to change the EI rules imme‐ diately, calling the current ones "punitive and discrimi‐ natory."
In his letter to Boisson‐ nault, Blaikie wrote, "Women in Canada have waited long enough for justice in the em‐ ployment insurance system," adding, "Just get it done."
In a statement emailed to CBC News, Boissonnault said the federal government can‐ not comment on specifics as the issue is currently before the courts.
"Our government will al‐ ways stand up to give every‐ one the employment assur‐ ance they deserve," he said.
'A huge challenge' Jennifer Extence of Crysler, Ont., was about 10 months in‐ to her 18-month maternity leave in January when she said she received notice that she'd been terminated imme‐ diately due to restructuring.
Extence, 39, who had been a brand manager, said she contacted Employment and Social Development Canada about two weeks later to pro‐ vide an update on her situa‐ tion. Her EI income was im‐ mediately stopped, she said, with the explanation that be‐ cause she would be receiving severance, and severance is considered income, she couldn't receive EI benefits at the same time.
"It was overwhelming. I never expected to be spend‐ ing my maternity leave with‐ out income," she said in an in‐ terview. "This is time with my children that I'll never get back, and instead of enjoying every moment, I'm left with the feeling of uncertainty and stress on a daily basis."
Severance is listed as in‐ come on the EI website.
Extence also has to repay the two EI payments she re‐ ceived after losing her job, she said. It's been "a huge chal‐ lenge" given the cost of gro‐ ceries and diapers.
"If I was a single parent or if my partner wasn't able to float us, I have no idea what I'd be doing to put food on the table."
WATCH | Katie Bowes was laid off after she re‐ turned to work from ma‐ ternity leave:
Overhauling EI
It's a common misconcep‐ tion that you can't lose your job while on maternity or parental leave - because legal‐ ly you can if you're being dis‐ missed for reasons unrelated to going on leave.
"It's always common, but it's also not illegal," Venditti said.
A worker who pays into the system has to work a spe‐ cific number of hours to qual‐ ify for benefits and must do so for each new claim they make. That means a new mother who has lost her job and files a claim for regular EI benefits has to work the nec‐ essary hours anew to get their full parental leave enti‐ tlements.
In 2022, then-employment minister Carla Qualtrough said not being able to stack unemployment and parental leave benefits into one EI claim creates an equity issue in the system, particularly for new mothers. She said she was looking for ways to make the system less clunky to eliminate inequities.
The Liberal government has said it's committed to modernizing the program. As part of its consultations, Em‐ ployment and Social Develop‐ ment Canada surveyed Cana‐ dians, and 89 per cent of re‐ spondents agreed that paren‐ ts who lose their job "prior to welcoming a child" should be able to access EI benefits for job loss without having any impact on their EI maternity and/or parental benefits.
This kind of overhaul takes time, Venditti said.
The problem is with how the system is structured, Monkhouse said, with mater‐ nity leave being part of EI. So if someone is away on mater‐ nity leave, they use up that EI allocation, unlike a worker who is laid off generally.
"There's a disproportion‐
ate effect on the people, pre‐ dominantly women, who are off on maternity leave, in ter‐ ms of getting EI afterwards," he said.
Mothers take maternity or parental leave almost twice as often as fathers, according to Statistics Canada.
Job loss on maternity and parental leave is something that's not really talked about, even though it's common, Venditti said, adding that one reason may be that parents who pursue legal action often have to sign non-disclosure agreements.
But she said she's seeing a lot more women, especially in senior positions, being laid off.
"The motherhood penalty is a real thing," she said. "Peo‐ ple always think they're pro‐ tected until it happens to them."