Pregnancy

[Guest excel2006]

What happens to students that are pregnant during residency? Are they allowed to cut back from their hours?

[Guest aneliz]

They are occasionally switched to 'lighter' rotations (ie research) as they approach their due dates depending on the program... there is some provision for less/no call at the end of their pregnancies. However, most that I know have worked pretty hard right up until they have their baby... the record being working until <12 hours before delivery. They are given 3 months of mat leave and then they return to their residency.

[Guest Ollie]

The PAIRO website says parental leave can be up to 37 weeks. www.pairo.org/Content/Def...px?pg=1087 What's the deal?

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Regarding the seeming discrepancy between the 3 months maternity leave and the 37 weeks, for many/most residency programs, new mums are permitted 3 months of leave pro bono. That is, they do not have to make up the 3 months at the end of their residency. However, if they elect to take more than 3 months then that extra time must be made up at the end of the residency, thereby extending the duration of the residency by an equivalent number of months.

 

I have heard one surgery Program Director speak about his notions re: pregnancy and maternity leave of his residents. He noted that he tries to arrange residency schedules to better accommodate mums-to-be, i.e., by arranging lighter rotations at certain points during their pregnancies, etc.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest cutieyellow]

in Quebec, we get one yr of maternity leave (paid) during our residency.

 

CY

[Guest medicator007]

CY,

 

That seemed to be a bit too long in my opinion so i just leafed through the collective agreement...

 

 

Section II: Maternity leave

 

26.06

Maternity leave:

duration

A pregnant resident shall be entitled to maternity leave of twenty (20) weeks’ duration

which, subject to Paragraph 26.10, shall be consecutive.

COMMENT:

The maximum duration of your maternity leave will always be 20 weeks.

 

You can read further details about mat leave in the colelctive agreement posted on http://www.fmrq.qc.ca

 

But ONE YEAR paid seemed WAAAAAAY too long.

 

Medicator

[Guest popcorn girl]

federal law is 1yr for maternity leave, you would get maternity benefits for that long, if some organization tried to enforce less you could certainly grieve it successfully, their contract just hasnt kept up with the times...

[Guest happy2bme]

I think they have to keep your job for you for 1 year, but employers aren't obligated to pay you. Maybe they only pay your salary for 20 weeks????

 

You still should be eligible for EI maternity benefits, which is better than nothing.

[Guest satsumargirl]

EI maternity and parental benefits combined add up to about a year. And you get about half of your insurable earnings up to a max of about $400/week for that time. As long as you have worked 6 consecutive months prior to taking leave.

 

The first week or 2 is forced unpaid vacation...or something like that, my friend who had a baby explained it to my once but I don`t remember the details other than thinking that was odd.

 

The amount and duration of top ups you receive after that are dependent on the organization you work for. I remember that different hospitals had different rates and lenghts when I was applying for jobs. I am pretty certain they are not at all obligated to give a top up for the whole year. They are possibly not even abligated to top up at all....but then their positions wouldn`t be so competitive! e.g. my friend who is a Vet got her top up for about 3 months from her employer, so not the whole year.

 

In the case of residents I wonder who is doing the "top-up" for the x-number of weeks mentionned above. Is it the hospital that pays it?

[Guest aneliz]

Your pay is issued from the hospitals that you work in but the money to pay you is received by the hospitals from the ministry of health in your province.

 

One thing to note, all residents are on a series of one-year contracts in post-graduate education programs... you are not a permanent, salaried full-time worker... this changes how maternity leave applies to you. Contracts run from July 1 - June 30... and you cannot renew your contract for the next year without successfully completing the previous year of training... and in order to successfully complete the previous year, you cannot have missed any more than 3 months (25%)of training (for any reason). Some of the provincial resident associations have negotiated a bit more than 3 months for mat leaves... but a whole year is not going to work if you are only on a one year contract... because your contract will have expired before your mat leave is over and then you will be fully unemployed...

 

Yes Canada allows 1 year mat leaves.... to people with a permanent job... residency is not that... you are a contract worker on a series of one year renewable contracts. You could try and fight this... but I don't know how successful you would be. There are a certain number of positions in each residency program and a certain amount of funding per year... if you drop back a year, you change these proportions and you add a funding problem that may or may not be solvable... You would need to negotiate this with your individual program and post-grad office... Further, an entire year off is a long time when you are still *training* to do something.

[Guest happy2bme]

Interesting, I though they would have been contracts for the entire residency, not year by year.

[Guest avantsp]

I figured I could help clear the questions about pregnancy leave, here are the links you need:

 

Employment Standards Act. 2000:

 

www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/DBLa...0e41_e.htm

 

There are hyper-links to pregnancy leave and parental leave embedded in the page. Note that they are two different things. You should be able to discern your rights depending on the type of job you have.

 

Here's a fact sheet for the Employment Standards Act, specifically for pregnancy/parental leave:

 

www.labour.gov.on.ca/engl..._preg.html

 

Here's the Human Resources and Skills Development link also outlining your benefits.

 

www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/gatewa...m/ei.shtml

 

I hope these links help you (and that they actually worked!)

 

Also, for everyone that reads this, these are excellent links to bookmark, especially the Employment Standards act. At some point in your lives, you're all going to be employees, but may also have someone working for you. You should be familiar with the legislation as an employee, but even more importantly as an employer.

[Guest satsumargirl]

Thanks for the info Aneliz. I didn`t know that about the 1 year contract thing...interesting.

 

But it is not unheard of for people (men and women) to take a whole year off of residency. So I guess it is just something they worked out with their program.