In temporarily replacing regular Employment Insurance benefits, the new Canada Emergency Response Benefit has provided needed support to millions, in a short amount of time.
However, the CERB has a glaring loophole that is short-changing workers from receiving additional income assistance from their employers.
Hundreds of thousands of workers in Canada have access to Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) payments when they are on layoff. These special, employer-paid benefit “top-ups” can provide hundreds of dollars, per week, to offset a worker’s loss of income.
Unlike regular EI, the CERB rules deny workers these SUB payments that many have won at the bargaining table.
There is a simple fix to this problem that Unifor already proposed in a letter to Minister Qualtrough. In order to ensure this change is made before members are denied the CERB, all affected workers must add their voices.