I move that Bill C-222 be amended by adding after line 31 on page 2 the following:
6 (1) Subsection 210(1.01) of the Canada Labour Code is replaced by the following:
This is regarding the death of a child.
(1.01) Subject to subsection (1.011), every employee is entitled to and shall be granted, in the event of the death of a child of the employee or the death of a child of their spouse or common-law partner, a leave of absence from employment of up to 10 weeks that may be taken during the period that begins on the day on which the death occurs and ends 12 weeks after the latest of the days on which any funeral, burial or memorial service of the child occurs.
The next proposed new subsection of the code relates to leave for the death of a child under section 206:
(1.011) Every employee is entitled to and shall be granted, in the event of the death of a child of the employee that occurs while the employee is on, or is entitled to be on, leave under section 206 in respect of that child, a leave of absence from employment of up to 10 weeks that may be taken during the period that begins on the day on which the death occurs and ends on the later of
(a) 12 weeks after the latest of the days on which any funeral, burial or memorial service of the child occurs; and
(b) 12 weeks after the end of the leave under section 206.
(2) The portion of subsection 210(1.02) of the Act before paragraph (a) is replaced by the following:
(1.02) In subsections (1.01) and (1.011), “child” means
That would be followed by a definition.
The rationale for that is that clause 6 adds subclause 6(1) to Bill C-222 to amend subsection 210(1.01) of the Canada Labour Code to provide that bereavement leave for the death of a child is extended from eight to 10 weeks. This will ensure that employees in the federally regulated private sector have job-protected leave while receiving the additional eight weeks of employment insurance parental benefits following the death of a child. The additional two weeks of leave will cover employees who have not yet served the one-week waiting period, for example, if they were not already receiving maternity or parental benefits and where their benefit period is postponed by one week due to a delay in the interruption of their earnings.
Subclause 6(1) also adds a new subsection 210(1.011) to the code to provide that bereavement leave for the death of a child may be taken up to 12 weeks after the end of the employee's maternity leave, if applicable. This change ensures that an employee who loses their child during the maternity leave period can wait until that leave ends before taking the full 10 weeks of bereavement leave.
Finally, currently, bereavement leave for the death of a child may be taken during the period that begins the day on which the death occurs and ends 12 weeks after the latest of the days on which any funeral, burial or memorial service occurs. This means that an employee who loses their child at the beginning of their 17-week maternity leave may not be eligible to take bereavement leave if they wish to complete their full maternity leave entitlement.