Winnipeg Labour Council

More Months Wasted with No EI Fix

Unemployed workers are being badly hurt by the Liberals and Conservatives agreeing to delay needed improvements to Employment Insurance. The problems with EI are not something that needs to be studied by a working group that meet over the summer and consider changes to EI.

"We know what has to be done to fix EI," says Ken Georgetti, Canadian Labour Congress president. "Putting off changes for months does not help unemployed workers or their communities.

"We have been advocating for improvements for months. Our recommendations have been supported by all three opposition parties including Liberal leader Ignatieff himself, by several premiers, the mayors and city councillors at the recent Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention and by editorial writers from major newspapers."

The problem with EI is summer up by the fact that there are 1.55 million unemployed Canadians - but less than half of them, only 46.8 per cent, are receiving EI benefits. The number of unemployed people not receiving unemployment benefits is certain to swell over the summer as many workers who lost their jobs early in the recession reach the maximum number of weeks during which they're eligible for benefits.

• •Change accessibility rules to provide regular EI benefits on the basis of 360 hours of work, no matter where people live and work in Canada.
• •Make all workers eligible for up to 50 weeks of EI benefits.
• •Raise benefits immediately to 60% of earnings calculated on a worker's best 12 weeks of earnings.