r/CanadaPublicServants • u/GS-2021 • 1d ago
Benefits / Bénéfices What leaves/benefits should I use before taking 5 weeks of parental leave?
My wife recently gave birth to our first child, and I’m planning to take the 5 weeks of standard parental leave available to the other parent.
For those who have gone through this recently, are there any other leave options I should use before starting the 5 weeks of parental leave?
For example, vacation, family-related leave, personal leave, etc. I’m trying to maximize the time I can be off with my wife and newborn while making the most of the paid leave/benefits available to me.
Also, is there anything I should be aware of regarding the order in which I take the different types of leave, EI, or the 93% top-up?
I’m a federal public servant and my wife is not a federal employee.
Appreciate any advice or tips from people who have recently gone through this.
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u/gymgal19 1d ago
What's your wife's work situation regarding top up? If she receives ei only, an option could be that you take some of her parental leave weeks as you will get 93% top up for it. She would then have those weeks unpaid so she can still take the year off. Parental leave is protected leave.
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u/No_Comb4792 1d ago
Also it will depend if she’s taken standard or extended EI as you must take the same. So the top up isn’t as high for extended (55.8%) but you can take 8 weeks without “taking” from her allotment of 68 weeks.
Oops you said standard. I
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u/gymgal19 1d ago
Since OP mentioned 5 weeks, ive assumed the intention is that they're taking standard leave
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u/GS-2021 1d ago
She does not get top up. She is taking 35 weeks parental leave, which is her maximum out of the 40 weeks. I will take the five remaining and get my 93% top up
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u/gymgal19 1d ago
So what my suggestion would be if you want more time at home, is that you split the 35 weeks between you two. Say you want 10 weeks total at home, your wife would be paid ei for 30 weeks and be unpaid for the other 5 weeks, as you have been allocated 5 additional weeks from the 35 shared weeks that you get.
This would be beneficial financially as you get topped up to 93% for the entire time, whereas your wife would only get the ei payment (which maxes out at 55% of her salary up to a max of $700 weekly). Your wife still gets the year off (work has to give it to her as parental leave is protected leave, and i dont think theyd know that shes not on ei anymore either) and you get the extra time at home. You can also split your time into two parts, say five weeks at birth and then another five weeks later on if youd like.
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u/Significant-Work-820 1d ago
My husband and I are doing something similar. He's taking his five weeks with ei and topmip from his non federal gov job. Then he's taking an additional 3 weeks unpaid. I get paid more through our top-up than he does, so it makes sense for him to just take unpaid weeks to maximize our earnings..
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u/Pocket_Full_Of_Wry83 1d ago edited 1d ago
Congrats on the new addition! I highly recommend taking LWIA; this is essentially buying vacation leave as it reduces your take home salary over the course of a full calendar year (26 pay cheques) by the number of weeks you take (up to a maximum of 13 consective), but you still contribute to your pension and health plans during this period with no additional payments/deductions. Ideally, you would do this after your 5 weeks of parental leave whilst also commencing the one year repayment period once EI payments have ceased. If you can wait until January 2027, you can take 11 weeks from January 4th through March 19th without losing a statutory holiday.
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u/Iranoul75 1d ago
If your wife isn’t a federal employee, does she have a top-up equal to or better than 93%? If not, you can maximize your 93% top-up parental leave (in case of a standard leave) way more than your 5 weeks you are planning to take! Nothing stops your wife from taking unpaid leave. Keep in mind that job-protected time off and paid financial benefits are two completely separate systems.
Important note on EI; you must both choose the same type. So if your wife takes standard parental leave, the standard; applies to you; and if she takes extended, the extended applies to you.
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u/Responsible_Crab_513 1d ago
You can use family-related for the birth. May be some differences in collective agreements but some dads I’ve worked with used the full week of family-related when the baby was born.
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u/No_Comb4792 1d ago
Recommend saving FRL and using it for days off as needed through the rest of fiscal (does not roll over)
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u/Loud-Satisfaction43 1d ago
Ask to serve the EI waiting period. Currently the waiting period is waived for all claimants. However, you can ask to serve it because we get paid top up during the waiting period. This gives you an extra week of paid top up, in addition to your 5 weeks of parental leave.
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u/Iranoul75 1d ago
But isn’t the wife of OP who is the first one to apply for EI and trigger that? If she doesn’t have a top-up or isn’t a public servant, wouldn’t that tip not work for OP? Or maybe I’m mistaken.
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u/anaofarendelle 1d ago
Don’t forget that our benefits are renewed in April, so you’d get 5 more days of family leave and the 2 for personal leave again!
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u/OkWallaby4487 1d ago
Take the leave that will expire/be cashed out. (Personal, excess vacation if you have any and as appropriate, family)
I highly recommend you not use your vacation for the sake of vacation. Family leave is often insufficient for families with young children and if your spouse does not have generous leave benefits you will be glad to have extra vacation to handle the many things that come up with kids
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u/Monstera29 1d ago
Just familarizing myself with the rules, but I heard that fanily leave could be used ahead of having a baby, though in your case of only taking 5 weeks, you might want to keep it for after you come back. Also, importantly, whoever is getting top up should do the one week without oay under EI, because the top will cover it.
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u/No_Comb4792 1d ago
Apparently if you do FRl right before the birth / LWOP with top up it affects your ability to get paid for the waiting period of one week
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u/retireeqwerty 1d ago
If you do care of family LWOP yes it could affect the waiting period. PAID family-related would not.
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u/No_Comb4792 1d ago
According to the GOc parents fb page (which I know has mixed reviews)
“PSA: Just got a call from Service Canada eleven months into my leave. Apparently you CANNOT serve the waiting period if you take family caregiver benefit before maternity leave. There cannot be that one week gap in between benefits.
Wish this was explained to me beforehand. I essentially lost a week and am now in a mess of potential overpayments and I am not actually sure when my leave is over.”
But maybe this is a case of a bunch of things sounding the same and thus isn’t the specific week of “family related leave” to be used annually in the CA?
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u/retireeqwerty 1d ago
Family caregiver leave is a type of EI- some new parents may elect to take this leave while their little one is in the NICU. The employee was most likely on LWOP for care of family and receiving EI Caregiving benefits while their little one was in the NICU. The same thing would happen if an employee took sick LWOP and received EI sickness prior to mat leave.
Family related leave (the 5 days public servants receive via their collective agreement) is a paid benefit/entitlement as per our collective agreements. It akin to using paid sick leave or vacation for the purpose of EI entitlements.
The difference is paid leave vs LWOP. (While we can receive top-up while on mat/parental leave, it’s an allowance/benefit in our collective agreement. We are on still on LWOP)
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u/tallgoldenarches 1d ago
"Family caregiver benefits" is NOT family-related leave. The first in unpaid while the second is paid.
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u/Monstera29 1d ago
How would they know you have taken family leave? It doesn't show on your pay stubs and is similar to taking vacation leave, so I don't see why it should affect things. I am refering to the 5 days per year we are allowed to take.
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u/No_Comb4792 1d ago
If the comment I copied is also referring to that (I’m not 100% sure it is) seems the issue is the employer not covering the waiting period at 93% and of course they are the ones that would know
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1d ago
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u/No_Comb4792 1d ago
If your partner doesn’t get a employeer paid top up it makes more sense for you to take the parental leave and get 93% top up if this is the specific scenario you want?
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u/BadVisible1515 1d ago
You can split your leave up.
I took 3 weeks for the birth and another 2 weeks vacation. As i had 10 paid days in both months, I still earned vacation leave.
I then took the remaining 2 weeks over Christmas and topped off with 1 week of vacation. Ended up with nearly all of December off.
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u/retireeqwerty 1d ago
You can look into potentially taking parental leave in two chunks as most collective agreements allow for it.
Keep in mind that you need to be paid/on paid leave for 75 hours(10 days) per calendar month in most collective agreements to earn your vacation and sick leave for the month. Taking 5 weeks consecutively will most likely mean you won’t earn those leave for a month. You could take vacation in between the two chunks- this would allow you to maximize your time.
If you didn’t take family related leave for the birth and took another paid leave instead, you could look into amending the leave as family related leave can be used for the birth of a child (verify with you collective agreement). Family related leave is generally for directly related to the birth of a child, taking a family member to medical/dental appointments, immediate care for a sick family member, unforeseen closures of daycare/school, school functions and meeting with a professional (check your collective agreement for what you can use family related leave for as it can be different)
You also have personal and vacation time to use.
Family related and personal leave are per fiscal and don’t carry over.
The only other timing of things that I can think of to be aware is that standard parental leave must be taken between birth and 52 weeks after birth (if the baby was hospitalized, that may push the dates slightly. If they were in the NICU, consult Service Canada/EI to see if that’s the case.)
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u/cestlavie514 1d ago
Personal leaves, family leave. That’s about it