Why parental leave doesn’t offer an iron-clad job guarantee

It is possibly the biggest controversy in workplace law: Do employers get away with terminating employees on pregnancy or parental leave illegally because of a “loophole” in legislation, or do the additional legal provisions extended to new parents go beyond what is necessary to ensure they are protected? The answer is often a matter of perspective.

Can a company terminate someone on parental leave?

I work for a company and I am currently on a parental leave. The division of the company I work for has since been shut down and I have no job to return to.
Since I am on leave, I heard this news from a colleague at a different company – no one (not even human resources) reached out to me to advise me of the closure. I contacted HR to find out exactly what was going to happen to me. HR advised that most likely no “like positions” would be available to me when I return and I would be given a severance when I do “try” to come back. I was not told the exact dollar figure of the severance, although I think this is important information for me to know.
Shouldn’t the company tell me exact figures of a potential severance package and secondly, shouldn’t they be obligated to provide me a position with a similar salary upon my return?

Pregnancy and Parental Leave Raise Legal Issues

What are you rights when it comes to a pregnancy and parental leave? Recently, I received an e-mail from a Metro reader asking this question. In the correspondence, she explained that after returning from maternity leave, her employer informed her that the company had restructured during her absence, and as a result, she would now have to accept a different job than she previously held. The new job, she noted, was a significant demotion in terms of status and responsibilities. Yet, when she complained, she was told that she either had to accept it or resign.