Canada – Employment Insurance – EI recipients participating in employability measures should be exempted from the application of the proposed provisions on convenient job

Canada – Employment Insurance – EI recipients participating in employability measures should be exempted from the application of the proposed provisions on convenient job

One of the key elements of the proposed employment insurance reform is the creation of three categories of users based on frequency of use and the provisions on ‘convenient job’ attached to it. People who have received benefits several times before will be expected to take any available work after six weeks, even at a pay cut of up to 30 per cent from their previous job. This proposal, we will all understand, aims to reduce the significant transfers made to recurring claimants, particularly in seasonal activities. But how not just penalize them?

Frequent Unemployed

The proposed reform affects approximately two thirds of people who receive regular EI: occasional claimants (32.6% of regular claimants) and frequent users (33.8%), the vast majority of which (81 8% depending on the evaluation HRSDC) shows seasonal behavior, as recently emphasized by Diane Bellemare. Under this proposal, the unemployed must accept job at a lower wage, whatever their field of expertise or training.

Why would a recipient accept a job paying less?

EI requires recipients to seek employment. It is his responsibility to seek and find a job. But one must admit that if he does not find a convenient job, it is primarily due to the lack of jobs, the so-called Jobs Gap. indeed, most EI recipients covered by these proposed provisions reside in regions where unemployment is endemic. They are not responsible for the lack of jobs, and they need help. The proposal should not hold them accountable for this situation. For sure, to penalize the unemployed will not create any new jobs.

But they if are not responsible for the lack of jobs, the unemployed are responsible for their employability. Reduction of their wages on the labor market is not only the effect of the jobs gap but, also, it is the consequence of their lack of skills, or one should say, of their inadequacies. In our opinion, the reform should consider that fact.

How else?

The only way to prevent this pay cut is to improve the employability of the EI recipient in order to enhance their employment outlook in other occupations, sectors or regions.

We believe that the proposal should exempt from the application of the proposed provisions EI recipients participating in employability measures. This would create a positive incentive to upgrade their skills, improve their geographical and occupational mobility and would avoid to penalize them for a situation they are not responsible.

This proposal has no extra cost because budgets transferred to the provinces under agreements could be used to finance these measures.

In sum, there is a way to do such that everyone win.

Michel Cournoyer