CAUT | ACPPU
Canadian Association of University Teachers
| Changes in place to Employment Insurance program will affect contract academic staff |
| (Thursday, January 10, 2013)
- Changes in employment insurance rules that came into effect January will adversely affect seasonal and temporary workers, including contract academic staff. “With term appointments and fluctuation in the availability of term academic appointments, many contract staff need to file for unemployment during the summer month,” notes CAUT executive director James L. Turk. The new rules will require so-called “frequent” claimants to accept “suitable work” that pays no less than 80% of their previous pay from the first date of claiming benefits. After six weeks, they will have to accept any suitable work for which they are qualified and which pays at least 70% of their previous wage. Claimants will also be more rigidly monitored on their job search and have to document their job search activities daily. While it will be harder to apply to EI, the changes also make it harder to appeal any decisions. One Social Security Tribunal will replace the regional EI Boards of Referees and the Umpire, inevitably delaying the process for handling appeals. “This new EI system unfairly punishes temporary workers at a time when the casualization of work is on the rise,” said Turk. At Canada’s ten largest universities, it is estimated that over 40% of academic workers are fixed-term contract staff. |
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