Act respecting labour standards
Section 81.15.1
Reinstatement of employee
At the end of a maternity, paternity or parental leave, the employer shall reinstate the employee in the employee’s former position with the same benefits, including the wages to which the employee would have been entitled had the employee remained at work.
Abolished position
If the position held by the employee no longer exists when the employee returns to work, the employer shall recognize all the rights and privileges to which the employee would have been entitled if the employee had been at work at the time the position ceased to exist.
2002, c. 80, s. 44.
Interpretation
At the end of a maternity, paternity or parental leave, the employer must reinstate the employee in his "former position", namely the position that he held at the time he left. Upon his return, the employee retains the same benefits that he had prior to leaving, including the wages to which he would have been entitled, had he not been absent, which includes the wage increases that he would have enjoyed.
If the employee’s former position no longer exists when he returns, he must nevertheless benefit, as if he had never been absent, from all the rights and privileges existing at the time his position disappeared. These rights and privileges include, for example, the benefits that the employee would have enjoyed by reason of his seniority.
A similar protection exists in relation to absences by reason of sickness or accident (see the interpretation of section 79.4 ALS).