Fired on Maternity Leave
One day last November, my almost-10-month-old daughter, June, looked right at me and clearly said, ?Mama? for the first time. By the next day, that would be the only current job title on my resumé.
Yes, I got fired on maternity leave. Cue the sounds of shock and dismay, the cries of ?That?s illegal!? In fact, what happened to me was completely legit, catapulting me from leisurely afternoon walks with my baby to anxiously hunting for jobs and updating my LinkedIn profile while she spent longer and longer stretches in her exercise saucer. It also made me realize that my perception of maternity leave as a protected, sacred time was completely naive.
Let?s get the facts straight: A company can?t hand you a pink slip because they prefer the person they hired to cover your leave. Nor can they decide that you?ll no longer be a dedicated employee because you?ll be doing the daycare dash every day at 5 p.m. But they can downsize or eliminate your job altogether, which is what happened to me. The content agency where I?d worked for seven years significantly cut back on staff. My position no longer existed and there was no equivalent job for me within the company. Betty Psarris, a lawyer who specializes in employment and labour issues at the Toronto law firm Turnpenney Milne, explains that, generally, you?re entitled to return to your original job or a comparable position with the same pay rate and level of responsibilities after you take maternity or parent...