The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Working people across the country have called for a long time for fairness in the Employment Insurance program. This week's recommendations for change from the House of Commons committee responsible for improving the program are what they have been waiting for, according to Barbara Byers, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress. "The government must adopt the committee's recommendations because they offer solutions that will go a long way towards making this program work the way it needs to, especially for people with jobs that aren't the traditional nine-to-five, forty-hour work week," says Byers. Byers says the recommendations mark a clear victory for the workers and unions who have raised these issues with their MPs both in Ottawa and at home. "These changes will make a real difference in people's lives. It's time to put the money working people have paid into the EI program back where it belongs Ñ into the benefits they need when they find themselves unemployed or the training they need to earn a better pay cheque," she says. For years, the CLC has proposed reforms like those put before the House of Commons: reducing the hours needed to qualify for EI benefits to a single universal requirement of 360; using a worker's best 12 weeks of work to calculate what they are entitled to receive; increasing the benefit rate to 60%; increasing the overall maximum benefit period to 50 weeks; creating a pilot project with the aim of establishing a training insurance under EI that would stimulate more active participation of employers in worker training and skills development; establishing an independent, arms-length, tripartite Commission to oversee the EI trust fund with a transparent premium setting process, along with a plan for government repayment of the EI surplus. "The current rules prevent too many premium-paying workers from accessing full benefits. They are especially hard on women, new immigrants, young workers and older workers trying to re-enter the workforce. The government now has a chance to make a real difference in people's lives," says Byers.
