FFAW/CAW Calls on Federal Government to Extend EI Pilot Project

12/4/2007

Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW/CAW) President Earle McCurdy is calling on the federal government to extend an EI pilot project that provides additional weeks of benefits for workers living in high unemployment areas.

Duration of EI benefits were cut drastically under the Employment Insurance Act of 1996. Since that time, our Union has lobbied for improvements to the program including changes to increase the duration of EI benefits for workers in areas of high unemployment.

Since 2005, workers who live in areas of high unemployment and lose their jobs have been entitled to five additional weeks of benefits if they need them. But the pilot project that allows for this is scheduled to end December 9, 2007.

Since October, our Union has been involved in a campaign to get this pilot project extended. Letters were sent to Loyola Hearn, Newfoundland and Labrador’s representative in the federal cabinet and to the Minister responsible for EI, Monte Solberg. In addition, FFAW/CAW plant committees across the province, including individual plant workers have been telephoning and writing the minister about the importance of this pilot.

To date, no notice has been given that the project would be extended, but Mr. McCurdy said some of our members have been told that Minister Hearn supports the extension of the pilot project and that he had been working with Mr. Solberg on this issue.

“While we appreciate that there appears to be support for an extension, it’s time for the government to let people know what is happening with this pilot project. In less than a week, the current provisions will have lapsed.

” Mr. McCurdy said Mr. Hearn did help get the project extended in June 2006 to December 2007 and the need for the extension is the same now as it was then.

“We believe the pilot project has achieved its goal and should at the very least be extended by two years and that serious consideration be given to making it a permanent feature of the Employment Insurance Act,” said the Union President.

The increased number of weeks of EI duration has assisted working people and their families, especially those workers employed in seasonal and other forms of non-standard work.

Approximately 30% of EI claimants exhaust their EI entitlement each year and one-fifth of seasonal workers, prior to the pilot project, ran out of EI before they returned to work. The result is the program had not been providing the coverage that it should.

In addition, HRSDC’s 2006 regulatory impact analysis for this pilot project, noted that: “For some workers the very nature of their work prevents them from obtaining sufficient hours of work to qualify for EI benefit durations long enough to cover the off-season year after year. This is particularly true for those employed in seasonal industries, where work is often sporadic and limited by weather and resource availability.”

Seasonal industries are a fact of life for maritime countries like Canada but remain an important part of the Canadian economy and in particular the rural economy, said the Union President.

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