PREGNANCY LEAVE
Hello, and welcome to another employment standards podcast.
In Ontario, the Employment Standards Act gives pregnant employees the right to take an unpaid leave from work.
The act also gives new parents the right to an unpaid leave following the birth of a child, or when a child first comes into an employee's care.
These leaves are called pregnancy leave and parental leave.
In this segment, we will discuss pregnancy leave.
We will focus on parental leave in a future podcast.
Under the act, if you are pregnant you have the right to take pregnancy leave of 17 weeks of unpaid time off work.
You are not required to take a leave if you do not wish to … and you may choose to take less than 17 weeks.
As we will see, in some cases an employee may be able to take more than 17 weeks of pregnancy leave.
You are entitled to take a pregnancy leave whether you are a full-time, part-time, permanent or contract employee.
You must work for an employer that is covered by the Employment Standards Act, and you must have been hired at least 13 weeks before the date your baby is expected to be born - the "due date".
Please note that you do not have to work for 13 weeks after being hired before you can take pregnancy leave.
It is only necessary that you were hired at least 13 weeks before the baby is expected to be born.
Your employer does not have to pay wages to you while you are on pregnancy leave.
When you are on leave, you have the right to continue participation in certain benefit plans, and you continue to earn credit for length of employment, length of service, and seniority.
In most cases, you will have the right to return to the job you held prior to going on the leave, or to a comparable job if your old job no longer exists.
The only exception is where an employee loses her job for reasons that are solely and entirely unrelated to the leave.
Upon returning to work, you must be paid at least as much as you were earning before the leave.
And, if the wages for the job went up while you were on leave - or would have gone up if you hadn't been on leave - your employer must pay you the higher wage when you return.
As well, your employer cannot penalize you in any way because you are or you will be eligible to take a pregnancy leave, or because you took or were planning to take a pregnancy leave.
In most cases, a pregnant employee can begin her leave anytime within the 17 week period prior to her due date.
This means that in most cases, the earliest you can begin a pregnancy leave is 17 weeks before your due date - the date your child is expected to be born.
Although a woman may plan to start her leave anytime within this 17 week period, if the baby is born before she had intended to go on the leave, she will have to start the leave on the date of birth.
For example, a woman may be planning to start her leave on the baby's due date.
However, if the baby is born before the due date, the employee will be required to start the leave on the date of the birth.
Although generally a woman may not begin a pregnancy leave more than 17 weeks prior to her due date, there is an exception to that rule.
If a woman has a live birth more than 17 weeks before her due date, she will be able to take a pregnancy leave commencing on the date the baby is born.
If a woman has a miscarriage or still-birth more than 17 weeks prior to her due date she will not be entitled to take a pregnancy leave.
Normally, a pregnancy leave is 17 weeks long.
However, in some cases it might be longer.
For example, if you had already been on pregnancy leave for 17 weeks but the baby had still not been born, you would continue to be on pregnancy leave at least until the birth of the child.
Once you start your leave, you must take it all at once.
You cannot start your pregnancy leave, take some of it, return to work and then take the rest of the leave later.
If you return to work - even part-time - you give up the right to the rest of your pregnancy leave.
If you wish to take pregnancy leave you must, in most cases, provide your employer with two weeks' written notice before starting the leave.
And, if your employer requests it, you must provide a certificate from a medical practitioner stating the baby's due date.
If you have to begin your pregnancy leave earlier than you had intended to because of complications with your pregnancy, or because the baby is born earlier than expected, you must give your employer written notice within two weeks after you stop working.
If you do not specify a return date, your employer is required to assume that you will take your full 17 weeks of leave.
As well, your employer cannot require you to return from your leave early.
And, your employer cannot require you to prove, through medical documentation, that you are fit to return to work.
The decision to return to work is yours alone.
And that's our overview of the general rules applying to pregnancy leave.
Please note that if you have questions about employment insurance benefits that may be payable to you while you are on a pregnancy leave, you may contact Service Canada's Employment Insurance Automated Telephone Information Service at 1-800-206-7218.
That's Service Canada's Employment Insurance Automated Telephone Information Service at 1-800-206-7218.
We will be discussing parental leave in our next podcast.
For more detailed information on pregnancy leave, please go to our website.
The address is ontario.ca - forward slash - employment standards - one word.
That's ontario.ca - forward slash - employment standards - one word.
Scroll down, and under topics you'll see "Pregnancy and Parental Leave".
That link will take you to the appropriate information.
Or, you may call our Information Centre at 1-800-531-5551.
That's 1-800-531-5551.
There, we can provide more information on employment standards in Ontario.
Thank you for listening.