This text is part of the special International Women’s Day booklet
Six women who suffered involuntary job loss while on maternity leave and did not fully qualify for EI benefits suffer their first setback in their fight to change the EI Act , which they consider discriminatory.
The action brought by the organization Mouvement Action-Chômage (MAC) and these mothers sought to have certain discriminatory provisions of this law declared unconstitutional, the effect of which is to deprive women of access to regular employment insurance benefits and failure to take into account labor market absences related to pregnancy, maternity and parental responsibilities.
While last January, the Social Security Tribunal ruled in their favor, the Employment Insurance Commission was ordered to appeal the Tribunal’s decision.
“It does not surprise me that this is appealed. I’m still very happy because deep down we didn’t expect to win the case. We had already said to ourselves, “we are going to fight until the end; if we have to go all the way to the Supreme Court, we’ll do it,” says Laurie Chalifour-Racine, one of the working mothers represented in this case.
Women don’t have to ‘choose’ not to be pregnant in order to avoid losing rights
The Social Security Tribunal had however ruled in January that “ […] because they are women who have had a pregnancy, they cannot obtain the benefits of other insured persons”. What’s more, ” [si] a woman loses her job during her maternity and parental leave, she no longer has protection. She must therefore rely on her savings or the income of her spouse. This keeps women in poverty and in a dependency relationship. It is to consider the income of women as a supplementary salary which does not deserve the same protection”, can we read in the decision rendered by the Tribunal.
“In its decision, the Tribunal highlights the importance of equality in our society and fully recognizes that women become impoverished by disproportionately assuming family responsibilities,” summarizes Emmanuelle Brault, Vice-President of the MAC. Women do not have to “choose” not to be pregnant in order to avoid losing rights. »
Remember that a worker who involuntarily loses her job during her maternity leave will also not be entitled to regular employment insurance benefits at the end of her maternity leave. In fact, the law does not provide for the possibility of taking into account the hours worked before the maternity leave so that the new mother can qualify for employment insurance benefits.
“I’m not doing it because I want to have employment insurance retroactively, that’s not my intention at all, I’m doing it because I want the law to change. I would like all women who decide to have a child to know the situation in which they put themselves. Because no one tells us that, if you unfortunately lose your job while on maternity leave, you have no financial protection. Already that women are aware of this and that it no longer takes place in 2022. It is completely unacceptable that we have to put ourselves at the financial mercy of our partner or that we dip into our savings because we decided to have a child. My real goal is to change things and it would be good if this happened quickly so that as many women as possible could benefit from it,” says Laurie Chalifour-Racine.
Political context
“Basically, we wanted to draw political attention to this issue. We need political will since modifying the law is the power of the legislator, ”recalls lawyer M.and Kim Bouchard, who is handling the file with the MAC.
While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has urged the Minister responsible for Employment Insurance, Carla Qualtrough, to “address the deep systemic inequalities and disparities that remain present in our social fabric”, the MAC therefore wonders why this government is contesting the judgment of the Social Security Tribunal.
“Pending a legislative amendment, elementary decency would have been not to challenge a judgment that only confirms the discrimination that the Trudeau government claims to want to tackle,” writes the MAC in an open letter published on its website. .
“Currently, we have support from the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois who are ready for the law to be amended. If the Liberals said tomorrow “we are changing the law”, they would have the support of these two parties. With political will, we could solve this problem, ”concludes Mr.and Bouchard.