Pregnant Montreal mom who lost job ineligible for EI, calling for broader coverage

Montrealer Clarisse Zelmat’s time as a mother has been bookended by losing her job and income.

After having her first child in 2022 and returning to work the next year, two weeks later she was laid off and not eligible for employment insurance.

Now pregnant with her second child, she once again lost her job.

“I was just having my kid, taking care of my kid,” Zelmat said. “When my kid got to daycare, I got back to work. Lost my job. And then no more salary. Like, I worked for it for many years.

“Having kids is, for me, means losing my job every time. It’s not that fun.”

Zelmat had been working at the same company since she moved to Canada in 2018. After she was laid off, her request for unemployment (EI) was refused just before Christmas 2023.

“The woman very coldly told me, ‘hey, you just had parental leave, so it’s the same pool of money. You cannot touch anything,’” Zelmat recounted.

Labour lawyer Gabriel Pelletier with the Montreal Unemployment Committee broke down how EI determines funding.

“The issue is that when you apply for EI, the Commission, so which is the entity that takes care of the EI program, is going to look at the number of hours that you worked the year before you apply,” Pelletier explained. “So basically, if you have enough hours, that’s not a problem. You get EI.

“Now, whether it’s maternal leave, whether it’s sick leave, whether it’s regular benefits, it’s all EI. It’s all the same claim.”

It meant Zelmat was ineligible. And around 3,000 women a year find themselves in the same position.

There’s been a campaign calling for reform of the EI program to ensure broader coverage for those who use parental or sick leaves in the same year.

“EI is in a state now of disrepair,” Pelletier said. “Where it does work for some people, but for a lot of Canadians who do pay their dues – I mean, they do pay their cut to EI on every pay of every year, of every job – but when they do need it, eventually, they fall in one of the many cracks of the program.”

In a statement to CityNews, Employment and Social Development Canada says the government made “several important changes” to the EI program since 2017 with the goal of making it more flexible for working parents.

“This includes allowing EI maternity to be claimed up to 12 weeks before childbirth, new options for standard and extended weeks of parental benefits and encouraging greater sharing of benefits by both parents,” the department told CityNews.

“(We) recognize that balancing family, work, and financial considerations is a challenging task for Canadians raising young children, and that each family has its own needs.”

Zelmat feels it’s “stupid to think that a woman today has to depend again on someone else.”

The Montreal mom learned she was pregnant again around the end of July – two months after starting a new job – only for things not to work out with another employer.

“Not lucky, I guess. I will say I will find a way again,” said Zelmat, who added she is helped by the fact she has a partner with a stable salary.

Zelmat is waiting to find out if she will be eligible for EI this time around.

“I just want to be OK with having my kids. No more stress,” she said. “I’m tired of just losing a job. I think I’m just going to have this one, and then after that, we stop. I can have a new job, and this time, keep it, and not having like, a maternity problem.”