The federal government has announced major changes to the employment insurance system. The new rules that hit repeat claimants hardest, but will force all on the system to accept lower paying jobs.
The government says it will put strict definitions on what constitutes “suitable employment” and what the unemployed must do to find a job in order to get off EI.
For so-called long-tenured workers who have been mostly employed the past 10 years, the new rules will require that they accept a job within their usual occupation as long as it pays at least 90 per cent of their previous hourly wage.
Get breaking National news
The worker must become less choosy and willing to take a lower-paying job – within 80 per cent of their previous pay – after 18 weeks being on the system, however.
For frequent EI claimants, the rules will be far stricter, the government says.
Canadians who have been on the system at least three times for a total of 60 weeks over the past five years will be expected to take a similar job that pays at least 80 per cent of the previous rate. But that’s only for six weeks – after that they would be required to take any job they are qualified for at 70 per cent of the previous pay.
The changes will keep Canadians ahead of Americans receive in benefits when they lose a job through no fault of their own. But the lot of the unemployed in most other G8 countries tends to be a little better.
View On the dole: what other countries pay in a larger map
– With files from CP
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.