Support the expansion of Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in Canada by helping to achieve a fairer system for workers. Show your support for expanding EI benefits, including sickness benefits, by sending a letter to the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough.

TAKE ACTION

Canada needs to restore accessibility and fairness to EI and modernize the system to address today’s precarious labour market, and to support persons with disabilities. That is why UFCW Canada is calling on the federal government to:

1. Implement a single, pan-Canadian entrance requirement of 360 hours for EI eligibility, which would help level the playing field for precarious workers. Additionally, for those applying for EI Sickness Benefits, the 360 hours of eligibility prior to the start of their claim must be lowered.
2. Increase the low-income family top-up for the first time since it was introduced in 1996.
3. Return parental benefits to migrant workers.
4. Reinstate a fair appeals process by returning to the Board of Referees.
5. Extend EI Sickness Benefits from 26 weeks to 50 weeks.
6. Eliminate the 1-week waiting period to access these benefits.

EI is not working for today’s workers. Successive federal governments have made the program less equitable and harder to access. At the same time, our labour market has undergone major changes. Right now, too many vulnerable workers are left behind because of gaps in a system that is supposed to support them.

A key disadvantage of temporary and part-time employment is that when jobs end, workers are unlikely to qualify for EI. If they do qualify, it can be for as few as 14 weeks of benefits. Because of variations in hours worked from week to week, benefit rates can also be lower for precarious workers. This is one way that EI amplifies labour market inequalities.

Workers qualify for regular benefits based on the number of hours they have worked over the previous year and the local unemployment rate. Fewer hours are needed to qualify in regions with high unemployment rates, and claimants in those regions receive benefits for longer periods of time. This rule implies that the local unemployment rate is the most important factor that determines how easy or difficult it is to find work. While that may have been mostly true at one time, it is no longer the case for precarious workers in urban areas. A single pan-Canadian entrance requirement of 360 hours for EI eligibility would help level the playing field for precarious workers in Canada.

Additionally, Canadians are entitled to claim EI sickness benefits if they are off or out of work due to an injury or illness. To receive these benefits, workers must accumulate 600 insurable hours of work in the 52 weeks before the start of their EI claim. One in five Canadians have at least one or more disabilities. Of this population, 20 percent are working aged adults. More than 100,000 people in Canada maximize their EI sickness benefits on a yearly basis. This means that the current model of EI sickness benefits can negatively impact a worker’s ability to maintain their employment status.

Show your support for expanding EI benefits, including sickness benefits, by sending a letter to Minister Qualtrough today.