There were questions raised in the House of Commons on Thursday over a story first reported by CBC News about women who have been fired or laid off from their jobs while on maternity leave.

CBC News has received hundreds of comments on the story — and a virtual debate is raging on the website — with people sharing similar stories saying they were laid off before returning from maternity leave.

Normally, employees on parental leave are protected. They have to be reinstated or offered a comparable position. But legally a company can let them go if it's cutting jobs.

The women then discover they can't get Employment Insurance because they've exhausted their benefits.

On Thursday in Ottawa, NDP MPs challenged the government about the practice.

"Will this government commit to protecting women on maternity leave by ensuring their employers fulfil their obligations and commit to expanding the EI system to include them," asked Irene Mathyssen, the NDP member for London-Fanshaw.

Ed Komarnicki, the parliamentary secretary to the human resources minister, told the Commons "the EI program does include those that are off receiving maternity benefits. They are entitled to a total of 50 weeks and if they're laid off within that period, they're entitled to take the full 50 weeks for that purpose."

But for many women preparing to return to the workforce, they've already used those 50 weeks of entitlement. If they're laid off at the end of their maternity leave, they are not eligible.

Pamela Cohen was caught by the system.

"I did apply for EI," she said "and discovered to my shock that I was not eligible."

"It's absolutely unfair and I think that if the matter ever got before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, they would probably force the government to change the legislation, because it has a particularly bad effect on parents and mothers," said lawyer Ed Canning, who handles many of these cases.

Companies 'play the economy card,' lawyer says

Lawyer Daniel Lubin said he has seen a quadrupling of wrongful dismissal claims from women returning from maternity leave.

Lubin said most companies he deals with blame the downturn in the economy.

"I'm hard pressed to find a company these days that doesn't play the economy card," he said.

Earlier this week, CBC News reported on the case of Ilinka Petkovski, who was told her job had been made redundant three days before she was to return to work following maternity leave.

Petkovski said she considered complaints to the Ministry of Labour, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal or possibly a lawsuit against the company, but in the end decided those options would be costly and time consuming, so decided instead to take a severance package and move on.

"We're just little 'peons' trying to fight these corporations who have deep pockets and fancy Bay Street lawyers, and we're mums trying to get on with our lives," she said.