Yet the federal government’s own figures show reforms are aimed at more than Atlantic fishermen or Quebec lumberjacks. Indeed, in Ontario, the brunt of the reforms will be borne not by seasonal workers at all, but by regular, full-time employees unlucky enough to have lost their jobs. That’s because Ottawa has quietly changed the definition of who is eligible for what. So-called long-tenured workers — those who have paid into the program for at least seven of the last ten years but haven’t used it much — will be treated best. Frequent claimants, such as seasonal workers, will be treated worst. But the bulk of claimants, all of whom are now defined by the government as “occasional” will be treated almost as badly as seasonal workers. In Ontario, according to federal figures, some 58 per cent of EI claimants (excluding those receiving special benefits such as maternity payments) are deemed occasional. Under Flaherty’s reforms, these occasional claimants will be expected to take any job available if, after 18 weeks, they haven’t been able to find work for which they are qualified. At that point, they will also be expected to take a wage cut of up to 30 per cent thestar/news/canada/2013/11/01/stephen_harpers_new_employment_insurance_rules_whack_ontario_hard_walkom.html
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 17:12:33 +0000
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