The National Council of Unemployed Workers (NCUW) is launching the campaign “The Time is Now“, with ads in multiple canadian newspapers and online to ask the government for the much-needed reform of Employment Insurance (EI), in order to modernize the program and make it fairer and more accessible.
“EI reform is a major issue, but we have yet to really hear about it. If we are launching this campaign today, it is to remind the government of its intentions and of the need for reform,” said Pierre Céré, spokesperson for the NCUW.
“Everyone agrees, the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the cracks of the social safety net. While the federal government has put in place significant income support programs and made adjustments to EI, these measures remain temporary, and some are already behind us.”
An EI Reform must address those two issues:
The expansion of coverage, to sectors of society which are currently excluded from EI, primarily self-employed workers, but also those who are poorly protected: part-time and seasonal workers, and Indigenous communities. Extending coverage also means easing the overly severe penalties and sanctions for dismissal or resignation. Before the temporary crisis measures, one in four applicants, who had worked and contributed to EI was excluded because of these policies.
Improving protections: raising the rate and extending the period of benefits, modifying the calculation method, and seeking to simplify the application of this program by introducing simpler universal rules, because this program has become unnecessarily complex.
“The time is nowto repair the social safety net and to, once and for all, reform Employment Insurance,” concluded Pierre Céré.