JANUARY, 1973
——

| gy BEN THOMPSON
‘ pocal 1-71 First Vice-President

advocates of the ‘quick
solution” have found an enemy
against which they can launch
itheir newest crusade. They
propose to drastically amend,
curtail, hamstring or cheapen
benefits paid by the Unemploy-
‘ment Insurance Act. This
proposed nonsense began
during the Federal election
campaign and has continued
throughout the following weeks
in their hopés that even
rational people would be
possibly blinded and stam-
peded into disorganized
retreat.
The glass cost for a high rise
building is immense. Those
‘same advocates would solve
that problem by using cheaper
glass regardless of the total
Jong range consequences to the
building or its tenants. Some
‘such proponents would even
‘advocate total demolition of
‘unemployment legislative
concern.
| The utterances, comments,
articles and even editorials of
‘the past few weeks have
presented a totally one-sided
picture — “‘the glass costs too
much.” The other side of the
story not mentioned is that if
| the average 500,000 unem-
_ ployed had been able to secure
| employment throughout the
~year the account would enjoy
an unprecedented surplus.
The highest most recent
“cost” figure being bandied by
these advocates is the 2.2
billion dollars. Where do the
crusaders point out that when
this money comes out of the hip
pocket that at least 200 million
dollars goes immediately back
into the right hand pocket? The
unemployed must live! They
require food, clothes and
lodging. The advocates of
doom have carefully avoided
telling how much of the pit-
_ tance individuals do receive is
again siphoned off by further
Federal, Provincial “ and
Municipal taxes. The unem-
ployed will certainly never
become rich. Their ‘‘cost’’ of
being unemployed is never
refundable. - y
Erroneous implication is
being made that unemployed
people are worthless indivi-
duals living off the fat of the
land. The truth is that by
| Paying into an insurance one Is
| Supposed to avoid the indignity
of tin-panning on street corners
and also be able to on leather
rather than cardboard in
Search for work. One wonders
what these proponents of quick
change would do if their fire
insurance policy.refused to pay
a claim because there already
had been another claim paid
_ that day or that the homeowner
| had another building down the
_ Street that he could use. The
quick solution advocates are
Suggesting just such remedies
be applied to the Unem-
Ployment Insurance Act. The
truth is there are not only
Contributions required, but
Many other rules before
| benefits are made payable.
! Spokesmen for various in-
* dustries, manufacturers and
businessmen associations have
Said ‘‘make it tougher,”
“reduce benefits.’’ These quick
Solution artists need to be

POETS Mea LO eT ee OP ee en eS

reminded that our neighboring

country once had a civil war
over slavery and a poverty
Stricken multitude in any
country is invitation to open
revolt.

Constructive

amendments

are necessary to the present
Unemployment Insurance Act
and Regulations.

is

3.

4.

‘Sections 16,23: The two

week waiting period has
seriously affected the basic
principle of the Act — the
unemployed require finan-
cial support when they are
unemployed. The waiting
period should not exceed
one week. Such a change
would make possible clai-
mants receiving benefits in
the fourth week after their
losing employment instead
of the 5th, 6th, or 7th week
that now is fast action.

. Section 58 and Regulations

173: Deals. with the
Allocation of earnings for
benefit pufposes, holiday
pay, bonuses, severance
pay, retirement pay are
being adversely allocated
to claimants at a time when
they require every con-
sideration possible. These

sections cannot be applied °

uniformly and must be
eliminated. The _ basic
stipulation that claimants
generally must be “‘capable
of and available for work”
already adequately covers
all such payments.
Section 18: ° Qualifying
Period does not recognize
that claimants through no
fault of their own may have
been unable to secure the
required weeks of insurable
employment. Provision
should be made to re-intro-
duce extension of the
qualifying period.

Section 21 and Regulations
2 (k), 148: The stipulation of
seven consecutive days off
work is a “‘paper tiger”’
destroying initiative of
seeking even part time
employment. This stipu-
lation should be removed as
other sections already
cover earnings during
waiting or unemployed
periods.

. Sections 44 - 58 (f): Where

unemployment is caused by
a stoppage of work attri-
butable to a labour dispute,
it must be properly con-
fined to direct parti-
cipation. The termination
of disputes is being ad-
ministratively stretched
beyond reasonable limits
and might better be con-
fined to legislative limits
being introduced in the Act
and Regulations.

_ Sections 25, 29, 64 (4) &
_ Regulations 160: Much con-

fusion still exists on all
aspects of the Act dealing
with coverage during
periods of illness. Benefit
coverage is NOT PROVI-
DED TO ALL sick
claimants. The new Act has
actually REDUCED OR
ELIMINATED certain
sickness. or accident
coverage to claimants
which was available under
the old Act. The Unemploy-
ment Insurance Com-
mission “topping off’ of
sick benefits and the cri-
teria for reduction of

. Sections 74 (2), (3), 94, 95,

premiums has yet to be
demonstrated in actual
practice as being beneficial
to claimants.

97: The combination of
applying’ ‘‘experience
rating’’ principles and
giving the employer the
right to appeal decisions
has opened wide the chance
that the Commission will be
plagued by appeals as
employers strive to reduce
their experience rating.

. Under the broad coverage

principle of the new Act,
there is absolutely no justi-
fication for — if an em-
ployee works five weeks
less one day, that employee __
(and his employer) should
not make contributions to
the Unemployment Insur-
ance Account. This is the
present interpretation
being put on the Act as it
applies to some industries
by the Department of
National Revenue, Taxa-
tion Offices and this same
interpretation is also being
applied to Canada Pension
Plan contributions.

There have been many

justified complaints which
could be classed as adminis-

trative problems

of the

Commission.

It is indeed an aggravation to

find that while mail sent by the

The world's

Commission is legislatively
deemed to have been received
by the claimant, letters sent by
claimants are reported not to
have been acknowledged, or
finally advised ‘‘not received.”’
Form letters that do get sent do
not adequately answer clai-
mants queries as Section
numbers of the Act or Regu-
lations alone are quite
meaningless.

In the complex computer
world, incomplete employer, or
claimant forms turn delay into
frustration as one delay com-
pounds into another. Too many
forms require interviews for
personal assistance.

Are claimants unemployed
people or individual challenges
that Benefit Control Officers
can joust with to trip into some
damaging phraseology?

Lost claims, lost files, con-~

flicting answers do nothing to
enhance the Commission

image and every effort must be
made to correct this situation,

Are the unemployed getting
too much money or are there
too many unemployed? Are the
unemployed worthless bums
who won’t take jobs or is there
a gap between suitable em-
ployment and available jobs?
The answers are there too long
has been a serious unemploy-
ment problem in this country
and even Canada Manpower
statistics tell, what few jobs do
become available, they are of
limited suitability.

The working people of this
country deserve proper pro-
tection from the spectre ot
unemployment. Let those res-
ponsible for amending and
administering the Act always
keep this in mind even in face
of the one-sided, incomplete
stinking smokescreen that
recently has been belching
forth. .

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