MONTREAL — The Bloc Québécois will table a bill on Tuesday in a final attempt to improve accessibility to employment insurance and correct certain irritants.
“The system, currently, by its various criteria, is unfair, or discriminatory against certain workers. And this is what we essentially want to correct with the bill that I am going to table,” confided Louise Chabot, Bloc MP and spokesperson for labor-related issues, in an interview.
A reform has been promised since 2015, but only pilot projects have been adopted or adjustments made to the regime, recently deplored two organizations dedicated to defending the rights of the unemployed: the Autonomous and Solidarity Movement of the Unemployed (MASSE) and the Montreal Unemployment Action Movement.
Problems of accessibility to employment insurance have been denounced for several years. Union organizations have already pointed out that only 40% of unemployed people qualify to receive employment insurance benefits.
“It’s really about accessibility issues. Let us talk about illness, let us talk about the number of hours to qualify. There are all these issues which mean that today, the plan does not protect workers in the event of a worse situation, namely job loss,” summarized Ms. Chabot, who is her -even a former president of a central union, the CSQ.
Two problems were particularly raised in the news: that of workers in seasonal industries and that of workers on maternity leave whose employment is abolished following a company restructuring.
Many workers in seasonal industries fall into what is called the “black hole.” This is the period during which employment insurance benefits have been exhausted, but work has not yet resumed.
The case of workers on maternity leave who lose their jobs following a company restructuring even ended up before the court. And the file is not closed. These workers do not have access to regular employment insurance benefits because they have not accumulated sufficient insurable work hours, since they were on maternity leave when their position was abolished.
“Our proposal aims precisely to know where the parties will reside on this major issue of employment insurance. They will have to do something,” said Ms. Chabot.
“Will the conservatives, who aspire to power, take up the cause and launch and commit to reforming the regime? Will the current government, which is on the edge of the door, which had promised since 2015 to reform the system and which has never done so, take action and decide that it can reform the system? I think this is a proposal where the bill will come to fruition,” concluded the Bloc member.
Lia Lévesque, The Canadian Press
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