MEMO REGARDING E.I. BENEFITS

March 2016

Employment Insurance benefits are payable to clients who are capable, available and actively seeking employment from the date they become unemployed.

New regulations require you to accept a job in areas other than your current job if one is offered, is at least 70% of your current income and within an hour’s driving distance of your home. Claims beginning July 1, 2013 will be affected by new regulations.

You must go on-line to apply for benefits (or to reactivate your claim, if you applied at one of the breaks rather than the end of the last school year). The on-line application is at , select “Apply for Employment Insurance”

If you started a claim within the past 52 weeks you may reactivate your claim.

This time there may be a question on the application asking if your income has changed over the past 53 weeks (or since your last claim), if you answer no, then the application process is pretty much the same. However, if you answer yes, then

the new regulations may require that you provide the gross income for the past 27 weeks of employment. You will be required to verify this income if asked so keep your earnings statements if possible and print them off before being laid off. From there you may select the best 14 weeks of income to calculate your claim.

Have the following information handy when you apply:

  • Social Insurance Number
  • Last day worked (March 24,2016) and recall date (April 4,2016)
  • You must claim all statutory holidays. (March 25, 2016-March 28, 2016)
  • Regular weekly earnings and earnings in last 27 weeks worked. These may be the same for most weeks if you are a permanent, regular employee.

All ten month regular permanent employees must use the hourly pay rate on your most recent earnings statement from payroll. Substitutes and part time employees will need to calculate each week of earned hours if weekly hours fluctuated from week to week.

If you have any questions about your claim, please contact Service Canada.

Gross wage 3427.85 divide 143.50 hrs per month = $23.89 per hour

Include vacation pay in your salary.

For example if you are a regular permanent employee paid $16.33 per hour. and your vacation pay is 4/52:

  • $16.33 X 4/52 = $1.25 per hr. vacation pay: $16.33 + $1.25 = $17.58 per hour.
  • Daily rate of pay x 5 days = weekly pay
  • Employer’s address and telephone number is 310 - 21 Street East, S7K 1M7, 683-8200

(see attached chart of vacation entitlement at the end of this memo)

Additional Information
Beginning claims will need an R.O.E. (Record of Employment). Make the request for the R.O.E. to be sent to Service Canada by contacting Cynthia Chobotar in Payroll at or 306-683-8283.

  • Equalized monthly paychecks do not affect E.I. because you are still laid off and not earning any money on those days.
  • Banked overtime and time-in-lieu can affect our Administrative Assistants and Secretaries that start work early in the fall. Their first day back at work, even if TIL is requested, becomes the start date on their ROE. Earnings and hours are allocated for those dates, as Service Canada specifically asks for this information every year.
  • You must apply for E.I. within 4 weeks of being laid off.

You can access this information on our website here.

On-line application notes

  • You only have to enter information in the boxes that have little red asterisks beside them. For instance, you do not have to enter your first day worked.
  • All the boxes have Help links next to them. Click on these if you are not sure

what they are looking for, and a brief explanation comes up.

  • This time we do not have a reference code.
  • You are applying for Regular benefits.
  • Personal Tax Credit – claim Basic unless you claim a spouse or equivalent to spouse as a dependant on your income tax.
  • Name of Union is CUPE
  • Local number is 8443
  • Enter your salary as $ per hour (don’t forget to adjust your hourly rate as well as calculate your vacation pay and add it, as explained above
  • Enter your hours worked per week
  • Enter your days worked per week
  • You do not receive vacation pay, because it’s factored into your salary already.

Please remember that regulations have changed and some of the calculations may differ than those provided here. Until an actual claim is entered under the new regulations I am not sure what questions may need answering.
If you do have problems, do not hesitate to phone the EI office and ask for help. That is part of their job. (if you do contact EI, make a note for your own references of the date, time, and who you were speaking to. Different Service Canada agents sometimes have different answers)

For information purposes, I would like to know what problems people have, as CUPE is collecting information on problems with E.I.

If you are denied EI, or have other problems, you can get help from the Unemployed Workers Centre (306-382-8662) or email Erich at or Mark at both are employees of the Unemployed Workers Help Centre.
You must file within 4 weeks of layoff to be eligible.

Vacation entitlement as per ARTICLE 24 – VACATIONS WITH PAY

24:02 Effective the first of the month following date of ratification, all employees employed on a 10 month basis shall receive vacation pay in lieu of an annual vacation computed as follows:

a)Employees with over one (1) year of service – 3/52 of gross annual pay

b)Employees with over eight (8) years of service – 4/52 of gross annual pay

c)Employees with over sixteen (16) years of service – 5/52 of gross annual pay

d)Employees with over twenty-four (24) years of service – 6/52 of gross annual pay.

Please check your collective agreement if you are still not sure of your entitlement for vacation so that you can figure it out. You can find your Collective Agreement online at