The government has announced that the new federal Parental Sharing Benefit will launch on March 17, 2019. As we previously reported, the 2018 federal Budget (Budget) proposed to establish an additional Parental Sharing Benefit with the goal of encouraging parents to share Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. The intended goal of this reform was to allow…
Tag: Pregnancy/Parental Benefits
Taylor Vinters Newsletter Publishes an Article by Amanda Hunter on Recent Maternity Leave Changes
Hicks Morley’s Amanda Hunter authored an article titled “Canada: 18 month maternity leave” which appeared in the June 2018 edition of Taylor Vinters’s International Employment Law Update. The article discusses recent amendments to the Canadian federal Employment Insurance (EI) program and changes to other federal/provincial legislation, have significantly increased the combined length of job-protected pregnancy and parental leave to, in some cases, 18 months.
Regulations Amending the Employment Insurance Regulations Released
Significant amendments to the Employment Insurance Regulations have been filed and were published in the Canada Gazette on November 15, 2017 to implement the availability of Employment Insurance (EI) benefits for the care of critically ill adult family members and the option to extend parental leaves, initiatives outlined in the 2017 Federal Budget. The changes…
Kathryn Bird Quoted in Benefits Canada on Structuring Top-Up Benefits to Avoid Discrimination Claims
Benefits Canada quoted Hicks Morley’s Kathryn J. Bird in a June 27, 2017 article titled “Structuring top-up benefits to avoid discrimination claims.”
The article explores how top-up benefits must be offered by employers to all staffers in the same situation, otherwise they could face a potential discrimination claims, even-though offering said benefits is completely…
EI Regulations Amended, Implementing Reduced One-Week Waiting Period
As expected, key amendments to the federal Employment Insurance Act reducing the Employment Insurance (EI) waiting period from two weeks to one week were proclaimed in force effective January 1, 2017…
Supreme Court of Canada On Pregnancy and Parental Leave Top-Ups
The Supreme Court of Canada recently upheld a decision of a British Columbia arbitrator which had found that denying birth mothers entitlement to parental supplemental employment (“SEB” or “top-up”) benefits where they had received pregnancy SEB plan benefits was discriminatory. The issue before the arbitrator turned on an interpretation of the collective agreement in place…