When your employment has come to an end, your receipt of employment insurance regular benefits is conditioned upon your undertaking a reasonable search for suitable employment.
Having delved into the specifics of suitable employment in another video - [ Ссылка ], we will look at the requirements of a reasonable job search. And to understand the legal obligations of a reasonable job search, one must begin with the underlying legislation, namely the federal Employment Insurance Act, which stipulates four (4) statutory requirements of a reasonable job search:
1. You must be available for work and unable to obtain suitable employment (pursuant to EIA 18(1)(a));
2. You must be applying for and accepting suitable employment that you become aware of and that is vacant or becoming vacant (pursuant to EIA 27(1)(a));
3. You must take advantage of any opportunity for suitable employment (pursuant to EIA 27(1)(b)); and
4. You must be able to prove that you are making reasonable and customary efforts to obtain suitable employment (pursuant to EIA 50(8)).
To understand what is expected from one’s Reasonable and Customary Efforts to search for suitable employment, one needs to turn Employment Insurance Regulation 9.001, which states:
9.001 For the purposes of subsection 50(8) of the Act, the criteria for determining whether the efforts that the claimant is making to obtain suitable employment constitute reasonable and customary efforts are the following:
(a) the claimant’s efforts are sustained;
(b) the claimant’s efforts consist of
(i) assessing employment opportunities,
(ii) preparing a resumé or cover letter,
(iii) registering for job search tools or with electronic job banks or employment agencies,
(iv) attending job search workshops or job fairs,
(v) networking,
(vi) contacting prospective employers,
(vii) submitting job applications,
(viii) attending interviews, and
(ix) undergoing evaluations of competencies; and
(c) the claimant’s efforts are directed toward obtaining suitable employment.
From the perspective of the federal government, you must be looking for a job every day that you are receiving regular EI benefits. You should be documenting all job search efforts for the entire duration of your claim. This includes the dates, names of employers you have contacted and their contact information, the type of work you were looking for and the results. This information should be kept in a safe place.
One needs to also understand that there are available exceptions that have been written into the EI Regulations in relation to this continuous reasonable job search, such as attending a funeral out-of-country or being out-of-country to receive medical treatment, either personally or by a prescribed family member (see EI Reg 55).
Also, as an alternative to immediately pursuing suitable employment, so as to receive regular employment insurance benefits, you may wish to return to school or upgrade your skills to help you find a new job, which can proceed by way one of the following options:
1. Taking training on your own while on EI;
2. Taking training while on EI with permission from your province/territory or an Indigenous organization; or
3. Taking training while on EI with permission from Service Canada (new option for EI claimants who have lost their job after several years in the workforce)
The specifics required of each of these training alternatives, which would allow you to receive regular employment insurance benefits during the course of your training are outside the scope of this video, and need to be specifically researched to get the most out of EI and other available government programs.
It is important to understand as much as possible about Employment Insurance and your obligations should you be claiming Employment Insurance Benefits. Furthermore, you need to explore other legal aspects when your employment has ended, because all too often there are other legal avenues that far too many Canadians fail to look into and have thus lost out on money that they were legally entitled to. That is why we have a particular interest in Canadian employees who are seeking out employment insurance benefits, given that they should be seriously looking at what further money might be due to them. So if your employment has recently come to an end, we welcome you to contact us to see if there is something more available to yourself and how our law firm might be of assistance. Neufeld Legal 403-400-4092 Chris@NeufeldLegal.com
#employmentinsurance #ei #jobsearch

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