The Impact of the Fair Workplaces Act on Pregnancy and Parental Leave

Earlier this year we blogged about the proposed changes to the Employment Insurance Act which would allow new parents to receive their employment insurance benefits over 18 months instead of 12 months during their pregnancy and parental leave.

On November 9, 2017 the federal government implemented these proposals.

Although legislative changes were made to the Canada Labour Code to accommodate the changes to the Employment Insurance Act,  comparable changes were not made to the  Employment Standards Act. As a result, employees who were provincially regulated were unable to access the increased pregnancy and parental leave, and the associated employment insurance benefits.

Since about 90% of employees are provincially regulated, the provincial governments were required to change their employment standards legislation to allow employees to take an 18 month leave of absence. As a result, on November 27, 2017 the provincial government passed the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 which incorporated an extended pregnancy and parental leave. These changes will come into effect  on December 3, 2017 and will allow new mothers in provincially regulated workplaces to take up to an 18 month unpaid leave of absence.

Lesson to Employers:

With the passing of The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, there are many provisions such as the above change to pregnancy and parental leave which come into effect as early as December 3, 2017.  MacLeod Law Firm offers a fixed fee service for employers who need help complying with these changes.