She lost her job after her maternity leave. Now she's been denied EI

First-time mom Celia Johnston was looking forward to going back to work after taking full advantage of her maternity and parental leave.

“I was excited as a new mom to get back to doing something a little bit more for myself and having a purpose that was a little bit separate from just being a mom,” she said.

Before her leave, Johnston, who lives in the Vaudreauil-Soulanges region off the western tip of the Island of Montreal, had been working in e-learning as a project manager.

But one week before her scheduled return on Oct. 12, her employer called to let her know her position had been abolished “due to the company’s financial performance," she said.

The news, she said, left her feeling a mix of emotions including panic, shock and fear. Johnston said she applied for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits the same week, but it took two months and numerous phone calls before learning her claim had been denied.

“I just received a message in my portal saying that my case is refused. I don't have enough hours to qualify for EI payments,” she said.

Mouvement Action Chômage (MAC) de Montréal, an advocacy group dedicated to defending the rights of the unemployed, says her situation is far from unique.

“We have calls about this situation maybe once a week," said Fanny Labelle, head of mobilization and finance at MAC.

EI rules generally allow combining special and regular benefits for up to 50 weeks in a 52-week period, with maternity and parental leave counting as special benefits.

Labelle explained that in Quebec, a person giving birth can take 18 weeks of maternity leave and then 32 weeks shared parental leave, for a total of 50 weeks. If they are laid off in this scenario, they won't qualify for regular EI benefits.

Meanwhile, a parent who did not give birth can take five weeks paternity. In a situation where they take full parental leave as well, for a total of 37 weeks, they are still eligible for regular benefits if they lose their job.

MAC de Montréal has been fighting on many fronts to have the Employment Insurance Act changed, saying it is discriminatory.

In 2018, lawyers with MAC de Montréal helped a group of six Quebec mothers who were laid off during their maternity and parental leaves, or shortly thereafter, bring their case to the Social Security Tribunal of Canada — an administrative tribunal that oversees disputes over the interpretation and application of laws and regulations.

Some of the women were denied EI benefits because they hadn’t accumulated enough insurable work hours during the reference period, while others had reached the maximum 50 weeks of benefits.