With some exceptions, you have to have a certain number of insurable hours accumulated in the 52-week period before you want to start collecting employment insurance (EI) benefits.
The number of hours required is different depending on where you live and what kind of benefits you are applying for. This has always had an unfair effect upon mothers who are primarily the ones who take time off to give birth and predominantly the people who take the extended parental benefits to care for the new baby.
If they end up losing their job during the maternity leave or soon after their return from their leave, chances are they will not have enough insurable hours in the last 52 weeks to qualify for regular employment insurance benefits.
Federal legislation like this is governed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Section 15 says that every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination based upon, among other things, their sex.
Earlier this year, six women challenged the government’s refusal to grant them EI benefits because they were on, or recently had been on, a maternity or parental leave. The Employment Insurance Act does not specifically single out women, but the effect of its rules are that women are the ones predominantly affected. One of the...
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