As I've mentioned, I'm a term employee at the moment. When we started looking into really going through with IVF, I checked out the gov. policies for leave & term employees... So, for the last oh lord, 6-8 months maybe, I've been under the assumption that as a term employee, I would be severely limited in the amount of leave I could take, before my seniority at work was reset. Basically, I thought that I could take no more than 60 calendar days of leave (yes, 8.5 weeks) for mat leave.
I was chatting with a good friend last night (who just happens to be a lawyer), and mentioned this whole 60-day thing. She was flabbergasted -"I'm pretty sure that's illegal!"... so I found the relevant parts of our contract & the term employee guidelines, and I'm quite happy to say I was wrong! *MUCH REJOICING* Looks like I'll be entitled to the same leave as everyone else, and taking more than 60 days will not reset my 'counter' to zero*. PHEW. The plan is still for J & I to roughly split the leave, but it's just so much better that I won't have to go back so soon... y'know, if this whole thing works in the first place :P
*Another part of our contract states that if we have been employed cumulatively for 3 years, term employees automatically become permanent. I'm at 15.5 months right now, and if things progress as hoped, I will have about 2.25 years in when the baby(s) arrive. I didn't want to lose 2+ years of time, but didn't want to take only 60 days of mat leave either. Now? best of both worlds... :)
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9 years ago
Oh wow, that is GREAT news. :D I was thinking when you told me that it just didn't sound "right" at all! You must be sooo relieved!
ReplyDeleteAnd now, to start planning Mat Leave coffee dates w/ babes and you, AS WELL as offloading all of my baby and mat clothes en masse into your house.. (rubs hands together, concocting fiendish plan..)
Great news!!! Logic told me that if you had been employed (regardless of status) and paying EI then you should be entitled to mat leave like everyone else. Then again I don't work in the government and lord knows there's enough red tape to circle the globe a few million times! Glad it all got ironed out!!!
ReplyDeleteHooray for positivity! From here on, I hope things just continue to get easier for you. :oD
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