With respect to maternity/parental leave, the Manitoba Employment Standards Code will apply except as provided herein.
Every female teacher shall be entitled to maternity leave and every teacher shall be entitled to parental leave in accordance with this article.
The teacher and the Division may mutually agree to extend the length of the leave if the teacher so desires. Any such arrangements shall be confirmed in writing by the Division.
A teacher taking Maternity Leave and/or Parental/Adoptive Leave pursuant to this Article shall be entitled to receive pay equivalent to ninety percent (90%) of the teacher’s gross salary at the time the leave commences plus any subsequently negotiated salary adjustments for up to one hundred and thirty-five (135) teaching days, which pay will include any employment insurance benefits received in accordance to this Article.
The Division shall pay a teacher on Maternity Leave and/or Parental/Adoptive Leave:
For greater certainty, a teacher who is receiving employment insurance benefits shall be entitled to:
unless the teacher takes a shorter period of Maternity Leave or Parental/Adoptive Leave in which case, the pay and/or top-up will be pro-rated to reflect the actual number of teaching days taken. The parties acknowledge that the top-up payments made by the Division for Maternity Leave may extend into the period of time that the teacher is on Parental Leave, but the payment is intended to be a top-up of Maternity Leave benefits.
Non-Application: This Article shall not apply to any teacher who is employed on a term contract during the teacher’s first year of employment. All other teachers shall be eligible to receive the top-up benefits once they have been employed for a period of seven (7) months by the Division.
Where a maternity/parental leave expires during a school term, the teacher shall be entitled to return to the same or comparable position at the commencement of the next ensuing term immediately following the expiration of such leave. In the interim, the teacher shall be entitled to return to such position as the Superintendent may, in his/her discretion, decide, provided that the teacher shall, in either event, be entitled to not less than the same salary and benefits received by the teacher prior to the commencement of maternity/parental leave.
For the purpose of this section, “term” means either the months of September to December or January to June, as the case may be.
A teacher shall have the right to one (1) day paid leave where the spouse has given birth to a child or where the teacher has adopted a child within two (2) weeks preceding or following the adoption or birth of that child. There will be no deduction of salary for such leave.