Regressive Changes Made to Employment Insurance Regime Over the Years

Ottawa picket in 2005 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the On to Ottawa trek opposed money taken out of the unemployment insurance system.

Successive federal governments have consistently made the eligibility criteria and conditions of the Employment Insurance program more unfavourable to workers. Here are some of the major changes that have been made since the early 1990s.

In 1990, the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney passed a law whereby the federal government ceased its contributions to what was then called unemployment insurance. This was done in the name of fighting the federal government's budget deficit, one of the major themes of the anti-social offensive. Since then, only workers and employers pay into the system.

In 1993, the Conservative government passed legislation that imposed the loss of benefit entitlement for those deemed to have voluntarily left their jobs without justification or to have lost their jobs due to "misconduct" (in the case of dismissal, for example).

In 1994, the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien reduced the benefit rate from 57 per cent to 55 per cent of the claimant's salary. The Conservative government had reduced the rate from 60 per cent to 57 per cent.

In 1996, the Liberal government introduced a series of major changes to the program, which became the Employment Insurance (EI) Program. Eligibility and duration of benefits were now based on hours of work rather than weeks of work. This change from weeks to hours negatively impacted many workers, affecting part-time workers in a particularly brutal way. This is seen as one of the key measures that has rapidly reduced eligibility for EI to fewer than 50 per cent of the unemployed. In another measure, the maximum number of weeks payable in EI benefits has been reduced from 50 to 45 weeks.

It is on the basis of these measures that the program accumulated huge so-called surpluses and $57 billion was transferred into the government’s general revenues to be used for its schemes to pay the rich. In 2008, Stephen Harper's Conservative government closed the old employment insurance account. This administrative decision made official the theft of the EI fund!

In 2012, Stephen Harper's Conservative government imposed other major regressive reforms of the EI system. Among other things, the government created separate classes of unemployed workers; frequent claimants, occasional claimants and long-tenured workers, who no longer have the same rights and are not subject to the same obligations. The most targeted workers are frequent claimants, defined as those who have filed three claims in the last five years or who have received regular benefits for 60 weeks or more. They now had to accept a lower wage than others in their job search or their benefits were cut off. A frequent claimant now had to look for a similar or different job and accept a wage equivalent to 70 per cent of his or her former one starting in the 7th week of his or her benefit period. They also had to accept such work an hour or more commuting time from their homes.

The Harper government also created the Social Security Tribunal, which replaced the former tripartite appeal bodies (chairperson, worker representative, employer representative) for workers who want to challenge decisions of the Employment Insurance Commission. The unemployed worker had to bring his or her case before a single commissioner who does not even have to meet with him or her personally. The meeting can be done by telephone or video conference.

The Trudeau government has reversed some of the Harper reforms, for example, eliminating the categories of claimants and bringing back the tripartite structure of the appeal process. But the other regressive changes remain.

Against all these regressive changes, workers and organizations of the unemployed demand that their voices be heard and that the Trudeau government meet their demand for an accessible, fair, universal and non-discriminatory employment insurance system. 

This article was published in

October 29, 2021 - No. 101

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO081013.HTM

    

Website:  www.cpcml.ca   Email:  editor@cpcml.ca