Defending the Rights of
Unemployed Workers
Demand for Improved Access to Employment Insurance
 On June 9, at
the initiative of Action-Chômage Côte-Nord, more
than 60 organizations sent an open letter to the Canadian government
asking for immediate measures to improve access to the Employment
Insurance system for all Canadian workers, with a particular urgency
for seasonal workers. Among the organizations that signed the letter
are defence organizations of unemployed and vulnerable workers from
different regions of Quebec, two from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick,
Aboriginal communities on the North Shore, regional county
municipalities in the region, workers' unions and businesses.
Workers'
Forum thinks this is an excellent initiative of
Action-Chômage Côte-Nord which mobilized all these
organizations in the midst of a pandemic when people are much harder to
reach. Workers' Forum is proud to be among the
signatories and to continue to offer its pages to the fight to build
the employment insurance system as a social program that defends the
economic dignity and security of all workers who find themselves
unemployed.
The letter appeared in several newspapers in
Quebec. It can also be found on the committee's website here and
on its Facebook
page. Action-Chômage Côte-Nord calls upon all
individuals and organizations who support this important struggle to
share the open letter.
Below is the text of the letter.
Open Letter to the Government of Canada
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the federal
government to put in place measures to assist workers and businesses.
These measures, while important, will not be sufficient for the
seasonal industry.
Considering that the Canada Emergency Response
Benefit will not provide long-term financial support, that the paid
training pilot project ended in March 2020, and that the pilot project
providing five additional weeks of benefits to seasonal industry
workers ended on May 30, 2020, workers in the seasonal industry will
need new measures to access employment insurance to deal with the
impact of the pandemic.
To this end, we are asking the federal government
to eliminate the reference to the regional unemployment rate and to put
in place a universal standard that will allow all Canadian workers who
need it to benefit from employment insurance.
Universal standard:
- 420 hours of
work or 12 weeks;
- a benefit rate of at least 70% based on the best 12 weeks;
- 35 weeks of benefits;
- 5 weeks of additional benefits for workers in seasonal industries.
Catering, lodging, cruises, agri-food production,
fisheries and cultural industries, to name a few, will suffer from the
impact of COVID-19. Many employers will have to lay off their employees
or, in the worst case scenario, close their doors due to a lack of
customers. Under the current employment insurance criteria, hundreds of
workers will not be able to accumulate the hours needed to qualify for
benefits. By adopting the proposed measures, Canada will kill two birds
with one stone: it will allow workers to qualify for employment
insurance and employers to better plan their season based on the number
of insurable hours required.
The impact of the coronavirus on the economy and
the workplace is very real and, without government intervention, it
will have a devastating effect on many families and communities that
rely on the seasonal industry. Not all workers will be able to look to
Canada's fields to compensate for the loss of their jobs. We cannot
condemn thousands of Canadians to the black hole because there is a
lack of work when simple and realistic solutions exist to help them. A
special measure for workers who will not have access to their regular
jobs because of COVID-19 must also be proposed by the Government of
Canada.
This article was published in
Number 44 - June 25, 2020
Article Link:
Defending the Rights of
Unemployed Workers: Demand for Improved Access to Employment Insurance
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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