Can You Be Fired During or After Maternity Leave in Ontario?

Few dismissals raise more red flags than one that lands during or right after a parental leave. The law gives new and expecting parents strong protection, and employers who ignore it can owe far more than ordinary severance. Here is what is actually protected in Ontario.

Can you be fired on maternity or parental leave?

Not because of the leave. Taking pregnancy or parental leave is a protected right, and your employer cannot dismiss you, demote you, or penalize you for exercising it. An employer can still end employment for a genuinely unrelated reason, but the burden is on it to show the leave played no part, and the timing makes that a hard case to win.

Your right to get your job back

When your leave ends, the ESA gives you the right to be reinstated to the position you held before the leave, or to a comparable position if your old one no longer exists, at no less than the pay you were earning (plus any raises you would have received). This is section 53 of the ESA, and section 74 separately bars your employer from punishing you for taking the leave. Being brought back to a lesser role, reduced pay, or a sidelined position is a problem the law takes seriously.

The Court of Appeal enforced exactly this in Partridge v. Botony Dental Corporation (2015 ONCA 836, upholding 2015 ONSC 343). An office manager returned from maternity leave to a demoted role with worse hours that interfered with her childcare; the court found a failure to reinstate under the ESA, a reprisal, and family-status discrimination, and awarded 12 months of pay in lieu of notice plus 20,000 dollars in human rights damages. In Sheldon v. St-Marys Ford Sales Ltd. (2017 HRTO 497), an employee moved into a worse job placement after maternity leave recovered 20,000 dollars in injury-to-dignity damages plus wage loss. A demotion dressed up as a "comparable" role does not satisfy the duty.

When is a dismissal discrimination?

It is discrimination when your pregnancy, leave, or family status was a factor in the decision to let you go, even if it was not the only factor. Red flags include being let go shortly after announcing a pregnancy, while on leave, or soon after returning; being replaced permanently; or being told the role "changed" in ways that conveniently exclude you. As with any dismissal tied to a protected ground, the remedies can exceed ordinary severance.

The timing is often the whole case. In Mannen v. Dr. Monika Spolia Dentistry (2019 HRTO 774), an employer who had warned an employee against getting pregnant fired her within eight days of her disclosure; the Tribunal awarded 20,000 dollars. In Cane v. Jaytex of Canada Limited (2024 HRTO 1705), a new mother terminated on returning from parental leave into an unsupportive culture recovered 15,000 dollars. Ontario tribunals generally place injury-to-dignity awards for pregnancy-based terminations in the 10,000 to 20,000 dollar range, and that sits on top of your severance, not instead of it.

What if the employer says it restructured?

A reorganization is not a free pass. Employers sometimes use a restructuring to mask a leave-related dismissal. The question is whether your leave was genuinely irrelevant to the decision. If your position was eliminated only after you went on leave, or you were the one chosen for cuts in suspicious circumstances, that deserves a close look.

What should you do if you were let go around your leave?

1. 1.Write down the timeline: when you announced the pregnancy, started leave, were due back, and were let go.
2. 2.Keep emails about your role, your return date, and any reorganization.
3. 3.Do not sign a release on the spot.
4. 4.Get advice quickly. A dismissal tied to parental leave is one of the stronger positions an employee can have. A free review tells you where you stand.

About the Author

Carmen Reyes

Legal Writer, Mirza Law

Carmen Reyes is a legal writer at Mirza Law in Toronto. She writes about constructive dismissal, workplace changes, and how Ontario employees can protect themselves when their job changes under them.

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