CLC Calls on Canadian Government to fix Unemployment Insurance (6/19/09)

The Canadian Labour Congress has released a list of proposed changes to the country’s unemployment insurance program, advocating improvements that could help 1.55 million unemployed Canadians.

According to CLC President Ken Georgetti, unemployed workers are being hurt by government delays in improving the system.

“We have been advocating for improvements for months,” Georgetti said. “We know what has to be done to fix unemployment insurance. Putting off changes for months does not help unemployed workers or their communities.”

Of 1.55 million unemployed Canadians, only 46.8 percent are actually receiving unemployment insurance benefits.

“With the current global recession, we can’t afford to drag our feet on unemployment insurance reform,” said RWDSU Northern Joint Council President Derik McArthur. “People who have been out of work since early on in the recession, and are still looking for work, are in danger of running out of benefits. We need changes now.”

Among the CLC’s proposed reforms are:

 -Changed accessibility rules to provide regular EI benefits on the basis of 360 hours of work, no matter where people live and work in Canada.

 -Increase eligibility of EI benefits for up to 50 weeks for all workers.

 -Raise benefits immediately to 60 percent of earnings calculated on a worker’s best 12 weeks of earnings.