Year: 2010
Location: Red Deer
Profile: Nurse Susan Parcels successfully challenged discriminatory treatment of maternity benefits relative to other health-related leaves, winning a landmark 1992 Court of Queen’s Bench ruling.
From a central Alberta rural community, Parcels graduated from Calgary Foothills School of Nursing in 1980. A nurse at Red Deer Hospital in 1989 and expecting her daughter, Parcels challenged a United Nurses of Alberta collective agreement clause with Red Deer Hospital requiring employees taking maternity leave to fully prepay health benefit premiums (over $800) while employees on sick leave paid 25% for the same benefits. With UNA support Parcels approached the Alberta Human Rights Commission. A provincial board of inquiry ruling in 1991 labelled the differential treatment of pregnancy and sick leaves as discriminatory. The Court of Queen’s Bench upheld that ruling in an employer appeal.
During the inquiry, Parcels, her husband, and two children lived in a “tiny trailer” in a trailer court as both juggled full-time work and childcare. Parcels was inspired by three Brandon, Manitoba cashiers who won a 1989 Supreme Court decision that Safeway violated human rights legislation by denying equal compensation for pregnant women who missed work. From 1997, Susan Parcels worked as a private practice registered nurse in mental health counselling and domestic violence treatment programming.
Keywords: Alberta Health Care Association; Alberta Human Rights Commission; Alberta Union of Nurses; Calgary Foothills School of Nursing; Court of Queen’s Bench; Health Benefits; Maternity Leave; Psychiatric Nursing; Red Deer Hospital.
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Susan Parcels’ case achieves rights to maternity benefits
Susan Parcels’ Human Rights case, supported by the United Nurses of Alberta, achieved entitlement to maternity benefits in Alberta. The case was decided by an Alberta human rights Board of Inquiry, and then, in 1992, on appeal by the Alberta Hospital Association, at the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench. The decisions adopted the basic principles for entitlement to benefits during pregnancy and maternity.
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See also: United Nurses of Alberta; Alberta Women and Work