Back from maternity leave to a demotion? Know your rights

You've been counting down to your first day back. Then the email comes: your role went to the person who covered for you, and a smaller job is waiting, at lower pay. In Ontario, the law is on your side, and courts have awarded a year's notice when employers got this wrong.

Ask about your return

Your job, at your pay

The Employment Standards Act sets the floor after a pregnancy or parental leave:

• Your job back: the position you last held if it still exists, or a comparable one if it doesn't (s. 53(1)).
• Your pay, or more: the greater of what you last earned and what you would be earning had you worked through the leave (s. 53(3)).
• No penalty for the leave: an employer can't dismiss, threaten or otherwise penalize you for taking one (s. 74(1)), and if you file a complaint with the Ministry, it's the employer who must prove it didn't (s. 74(2)).

The exception: no reinstatement if the job ended solely for reasons unrelated to the leave (s. 53(2)).

What two courts decided

A demotion and a pay cut. An advertising executive promoted to executive vice-president at $300,000 was handed a letter after her maternity leave putting her back in her old title at $210,000. She refused and left. The court held that a demotion and a significant pay cut each, on their own, amount to a constructive dismissal, a change so basic it ends the job. It awarded 12 months' notice plus $40,000 in moral damages for how the demotion was handled, though it found discrimination not proven (M. v. King Ursa Inc., 2025 ONSC 3553).

Demoted, then fired. A dental office manager with more than seven years of service was moved to a hygienist's job with fewer hours and lower pay after her leave, then dismissed. The Court of Appeal upheld 12 months' notice and $20,000 in human rights damages for family status discrimination (P. v. Botony Dental Corporation, 2015 ONCA 836).

What to do first

• Keep everything in writing: every email and letter about your return, the role and the pay.
• Don't sign in a hurry. Accepting a new title or contract can be read as agreeing to it. Say in writing that you don't.
• Watch the clock. Discrimination because you are or may become pregnant is discrimination because of sex (Human Rights Code, ss. 5(1) and 10(2)), and a claim to the Human Rights Tribunal must be filed within one year of the last incident (s. 34(1)).

Tell our assistant what happened, or see what you could be owed with the severance calculator.

Ask about your return

Ontario Severance is an independent site, not a law firm, and this article is general information. From a chat or a calculator result, you can ask us for help finding an Ontario employment lawyer, and we reply within one business day.