NS New Leave for End of Pregnancy

Effective January 1, 2023, a new unpaid leave of absence of up to five consecutive working days for the end of pregnancy came into effect for employees who experience an end of pregnancy. End of pregnancy means a pregnancy that does not end in a live birth.

The reason for the end of pregnancy does not impact an employee's eligibility for leave, and employers are not entitled to know why a pregnancy ended.

Here are the potential scenarios:

  • If an employee's pregnancy ends before completing week 19, they are entitled to an unpaid leave of absence of up to five consecutive working days.
  • If an employee's pregnancy ends after completing week 19, they are entitled to an unpaid leave of absence of up to 16 consecutive weeks.
  • If an employee's pregnancy ends while they are on pregnancy leave, and they have taken more than ten weeks of pregnancy leave when their pregnancy ends, they are entitled to up to six additional weeks of unpaid leave from the day their pregnancy ends.

An employee whose pregnancy ends after week 19 and who initially chooses to take the five-day leave can then decide to take the more extended leave entitlement (minus whatever portion of the five days they already took).

The leave periods must be taken consecutively — the employee cannot return to work between the leave periods. The total leave time for the end of pregnancy cannot be more than 16 weeks, and it cannot be more than six weeks if the employee was on pregnancy leave for more than ten weeks when their pregnancy ended.

More details are available here.

Was this article helpful?

0 out of 0 found this helpful

Have more questions? Submit a request