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Ontario Public Service

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  2. Collective Agreement & Fact Sheets
  3. Pregnancy and Parental Leave
Ontario Public Service

Pregnancy and Parental Leave

Table of contents

Table of contents

  • Eligibility
  • Regular (permanent) employees with less than 13 weeks of service
  • Regular (permanent) employees with more than 13 weeks of service
  • Fixed-term (contract) employees
  • Pregnancy leave
  • Pregnancy leave and top-up payments
  • Parental leave
  • If you took pregnancy leave
  • If you did not take pregnancy leave
  • Shortening your parental leave
  • Extending your parental leave
  • Returning to work
  • Credits, benefits, and pension contributions during pregnancy and parental leaves
  • If you are a regular (permanent) employee with less than 13 weeks’ service
  • If you are a regular (permanent) employee with more than 13 weeks’ service
  • If you are a temporary, fixed-term, or contract employee and opted into the benefits plan
  • If you have questions or need assistance

AMAPCEO has negotiated enhancements to pregnancy and parental leave, including job security and salary top-ups for most permanent employees. These are defined in Article 24 of your Collective Agreement.

The ability to collectively negotiate the terms and conditions of your employment, including these enhancements, is an important advantage of being a unionized professional.

In fact, the labour movement has a long history of winning fairer benefits for parents and advocating that they be extended to all workers, unionized or not.

Fact Sheet

Bargaining Unit: Ontario Public Service (OPS)

Collective Agreement Article: 24
First Published: July 15, 2020
Last Updated: December 7, 2020

Jump Menu Anchor: Eligibility

Eligibility

All employees are eligible for pregnancy and parental leave.

Jump Menu Anchor: Regular (permanent) employees with less than 13 weeks of service

Regular (permanent) employees with less than 13 weeks of service

  • Your leave will be unpaid, though you may receive Employment Insurance (EI) benefits.
Jump Menu Anchor: Regular (permanent) employees with more than 13 weeks of service

Regular (permanent) employees with more than 13 weeks of service

  • If you receive Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, you are eligible for a “top up” of your salary during your leave.
Jump Menu Anchor: Fixed-term (contract) employees

Fixed-term (contract) employees

  • Your leave will be unpaid, though you may receive Employment Insurance (EI) benefits.
  • You should not resign your position to start a pregnancy or parental leave. Instead, you should seek a pregnancy and/or parental leave from your position.
  • If your contract is longer than your leave, you can return to your position after your leave.
  • If your contract expires while you are on leave, the expiry date of your contract will become your layoff date. This is important because your two-year access to internal postings is counted from this date.
  • If you have questions or need assistance, please contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative.
Jump Menu Anchor: Pregnancy leave

Pregnancy leave

If you are pregnant, you have the right to take pregnancy leave for up to 17 weeks.

Your leave cannot start earlier than 17 weeks before the due date and must start no later than the day of the birth of the child.

If you are not eligible for parental leave (due to pregnancy loss), your pregnancy leave will conclude either 17 weeks after the leave began, or 12 weeks after the pregnancy loss, whichever is later. 

Jump Menu Anchor: Pregnancy leave and top-up payments

Pregnancy leave and top-up payments

If you are eligible (see above), you will receive a combination of EI benefits and salary “top-up” during your leave that consists of:

  • week 1 (while waiting for EI benefits): 93% of your salary; and
  • weeks 2-16: your EI maternity benefit payment plus a salary top-up that together totals 93% of your salary.

After your EI benefits have ended but before you return to the workplace, you are eligible for one additional week at 93% of your salary. This week of pay must be taken immediately after your EI benefits have ended, either at the end of your parental leave, or at the end of your pregnancy leave if you are not taking parental leave. 

To receive the top-up, you must submit proof to your supervisor or another Employer representative that you are in receipt of EI maternity benefits. 

Did your pregnancy leave begin before March 17, 2023? See past provisions

If you were eligible (see above) and your pregnancy leave began before March 17, 2023, you would have received a combination of EI benefits and salary “top-up” during your leave that consisted of:

  • week 1 (while waiting for EI benefits): 93% of your salary;
  • week 2: your EI maternity benefit payment plus 93% of your salary; and
  • weeks 3-17: your EI maternity benefit payment plus a salary top-up that together totaled 93% of your salary.
Jump Menu Anchor: Parental leave

Parental leave

You have a right to take parental leave if you become:

  • a birth parent,
  • an adoptive parent, or
  • a person who is in a relationship of some permanence with a parent of a child and intend to treat the child as your own.
Jump Menu Anchor: If you took pregnancy leave

If you took pregnancy leave

You are eligible for up to 61 weeks of parental leave. Your leave must start immediately after your pregnancy leave.

You can choose to take either standard or extended parental benefits. These options are set by the federal government and not your Collective Agreement.

If you are eligible (see above),  you will receive a combination of EI benefits and salary “top-up” during your leave that consists of:

  • 15 weeks of your chosen EI parental benefit payment (either standard or extended) plus a top-up equal to the difference between the standard EI parental benefits and 93% of your salary. This applies regardless of whether you choose standard or extended EI.

For any further weeks of parental leave, you will receive your EI benefits and no top-up.

Immediately after your EI benefits have ended but before you return to the workplace, you are eligible for one additional week at 93% of your salary, as described above.

To receive the top-up, you must submit proof to your supervisor or another Employer representative that you are in receipt of EI parental benefits. It does not matter if you are receiving standard or extended parental benefits.

Did your parental leave begin before March 17, 2023? See past provisions

If you were eligible (see above) and your pregnancy or parental leave began before March 17, 2023, you would have received a combination of EI benefits and salary “top-up” during your leave that consists of:

  • 15 weeks: your EI parental benefit payment (either standard or extended) plus a salary top-up that together totals 93% of your salary.

For any further weeks of parental leave, you would have received your EI benefits and no top-up.

Jump Menu Anchor: If you did not take pregnancy leave

If you did not take pregnancy leave

You are eligible for up to 63 weeks of parental leave. Your leave cannot start any earlier than the day your child is born or comes into your care for the first time or any later than 78 weeks after that date.

You can choose to take either standard or extended parental benefits. These options are set by the federal government and not your Collective Agreement.

If you are eligible (see above) and did not take pregnancy leave, you will receive a combination of EI benefits and salary “top-up” during your leave that consists of: 

  • week 1 (while waiting for your EI benefits):  93% of your salary; and 
  • 15 additional weeks of your chosen EI parental benefit payment (either standard or extended) plus a top-up equal to the difference between the standard EI parental benefits and 93% of your salary. This applies regardless of whether you choose standard or extended EI.

For any further weeks of parental leave, you will receive your EI benefits and no top-up.

Immediately after your EI benefits have ended but before you return to the workplace, you are eligible for one additional week at 93% of your salary. 

​To receive the top-up, you must submit proof to your supervisor or another Employer representative that you are in receipt of EI parental benefits. It does not matter if you are receiving standard or extended parental benefits.

Did your parental leave begin before March 17, 2023? See past provisions

If you were eligible (see above), did not take pregnancy leave, and your parental leave began before March 17, 2023, you would have received a combination of EI benefits and salary “top-up” during your leave that consisted of:  

  • week 1 (while waiting for EI benefits): 93% of your salary; 
  • week 2: your EI parental benefit payment plus 93% of your salary; and
  • weeks 3-17: your EI parental benefit payment (either standard or extended) plus a salary top-up that together totals 93% of your salary.

For any further weeks of parental leave, you would have received your EI benefits and no top-up.

Jump Menu Anchor: Shortening your parental leave

Shortening your parental leave

If you wish to end your  parental leave early, you must give written notice to your supervisor or another Employer representative at least four weeks before the original end of your parental leave.

Jump Menu Anchor: Extending your parental leave

Extending your parental leave

If you did not take pregnancy leave, you can extend your parental leave for an additional six consecutive weeks. This extension is an unpaid leave.

You must request the extended parental leave in writing to your supervisor or another Employer representative at least two weeks before the end of your parental leave.

Jump Menu Anchor: Returning to work

Returning to work

You should return to your old job at the end of your pregnancy or parental leave. If this is not the case, please seek the assistance of an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative.

Jump Menu Anchor: Credits, benefits, and pension contributions during pregnancy and parental leaves

Credits, benefits, and pension contributions during pregnancy and parental leaves

Jump Menu Anchor: If you are a regular (permanent) employee with less than 13 weeks’ service

If you are a regular (permanent) employee with less than 13 weeks’ service:

  • you will not accrue credits (e.g. vacation, seniority) during your unpaid leave; and
  • your insured benefits will continue for the first month of your leave, then stop.
Jump Menu Anchor: If you are a regular (permanent) employee with more than 13 weeks’ service

If you are a regular (permanent) employee with more than 13 weeks’ service:

  • you will continue to accrue credits (e.g. vacation, seniority) during your leave;
  • your insured benefits (and employee premiums) will continue, unless you write your Employer to request that they stop; and
  • you can write your Employer to request that you continue to make pension contributions during your leave.
Jump Menu Anchor: If you are a temporary, fixed-term, or contract employee and opted into the benefits plan

If you are a temporary, fixed-term, or contract employee and opted into the benefits plan:

  • your insured benefits will continue, provided you continue to pay the premiums.
Jump Menu Anchor: If you have questions or need assistance

If you have questions or need assistance

Please contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative near you. They do not have to be in your Ministry.

Workplace Representatives are trained union members who have volunteered to confidentially assist members like you in the workplace. They should be your first point of contact in seeking information and representation with an issue at work.

Your Workplace Representative may ask you to use the union’s secure web-based system, RADAR, to provide details about your situation. RADAR will help you and your Workplace Representative keep track of things without the privacy concerns that could come from using the Employer’s email system.

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We would like to acknowledge Tkaronto, a Mohawk word meaning “the place in the water where the trees are standing.”

The AMAPCEO office is on the traditional unceded territory of Haudenosaunee speaking nations, including the Wendat, Seneca and Mohawk. These nations have been here since time immemorial and were in more recent times joined by the Mississaugas of the Credit.

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