The significant changes to the Employment Insurance (EI) program which are to be quickly implemented through Budget 2012 with very little consultation have not received enough critical attention.
First, a word on what is not in the Budget. It is disappointing, to say the least, that the government is failing to respond to the fact that less than 40% of unemployed Canadians are now qualifying for EI, well below the already low pre-recession rate. And, for all of the talk about skills shortages in Canada, it is notable that there is NO increased investment at all in EI supported training which would assist unemployed workers to find good jobs.
Instead, the focus is on tightening discipline over those workers who have managed to qualify for a claim.
The vast majority of regular EI claimants welcome positive efforts to assist them in a search for a new job and will not turn down reasonable employment opportunities. And there are rules now in place.
As things now stand, EI regular claimants are expected to undertake “reasonable and customary efforts to obtain suitable employment” and can be cut off benefits if they do not do so. “Suitable” employment is defined in S. 27 (2) and (3) of the Act. A job is not suitable if it is in the claimant’s occupation but offers wages and conditions less than those offered in agreements between employers and employees, or by “good” employers. Jobs not in the claimant’s usual occupation are not suitable if they offer a lower rate of pay than the worker enjoyed previously, except that after a “reasonable interval” a claimant is expected to accept a job which offers wages and conditions matching those in agreements or offered by “good” employers.
The clear intent of these Sections is to allow for a period of job search to find a job matching previous employment wages and conditions, and to prevent the unemployed from driving down wages and conditions.
Sections 605 and 608 of the Budget Bill repeals these Sections, and give the Minister the power to set through regulation definitions of “suitable” employment for different categories of claimants, and “reasonable and customary efforts” to find a new job. These regulations will likely oblige claimants to take offers of jobs at lower wages and with worse conditions at an earlier point in their claim, and perhaps to take any available job at some point in a claim. Language in the Budget itself suggest there may be a focus on frequent claimants. The intent may be to require claimants to move to take an available job.
Forcing workers to take the first available job is not good labour market policy since periods of job search allow for a better fit between unemployed workers and job vacancies across the country. For example, an unemployed welder in Moncton may need time to find a suitable job in Western Canada, and deserves income support from EI for the needed period of active job search.
These pending new rules are of particular concern given the proposed changes to the appeal system for claims. A new Social Security Tribunal will replace the current system of EI Boards of Referees and the Umpire. ...Read more
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