After a year on maternity leave, Celia Johnston was supposed to be back at work in October.
But a week before her return, she got a call saying her job was being cut.
“My employer called me and told me that due to the company’s financial performance, she was gonna have to let me go,” said Johnston.
“So officially, in October, I was laid off, and I put in my application with employment insurance that week.”
Johnston says she quickly applied for employment insurance, expecting some income while she looked for another job.
After weeks of going back and forth with agents, she said, she was informed that her application was denied — because while on mat leave, she wasn’t accumulating any insurable hours.
“It’s such a vulnerable time for a new mother and families,” she said. “You’ve been off work for an entire year, which is a big gap on your CV. They’ve reduced the income of about 50 per cent on your maternity leave — and then you’re hit with this situation that wasn’t expected.”
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Advocates at Mouvement action chômage Montréal says Johnston isn’t alone.
The unemployment action group says it’s a loophole that has been hurting women for years.
Under the current rules, time spent on maternity leave doesn’t count toward insurable hours needed to qualify for EI benefits, and that’s something they’ve been challenging in court since 2018.
“We say that the article in the law that blocked these women to have regular benefits are discrimination against women, based on the Charter,” said Fanny Labelle, a spokesperson for Mouvement action chômage Montréal.
Their case is now before the Federal Court of Appeal, and they say it could still take years to work its way through the courts — unless the federal government changes the regulation.
“These women should not be penalized to receive regular benefits because they had made the choice to be mothers,” said Labelle. “And that’s what shocked us. That’s why we don’t understand why the government of Justin Trudeau, and now of Mark Carney, won’t budge and won’t change the law.”
In a statement to Global News, Employment and Social Development Canada said it has made several changes to Employment Insurance since 2017. to give working parents more flexibility, including new options for parental leave and benefit sharing between parents.
“To that end, the Government of Canada is working on improving EI to better reflect realities of the modern workforce,” the statement read.
However, the government did not directly address whether it plans to change the rule that prevents maternity leave from counting toward EI eligibility.
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