Employment Insurance in Canada - Essay Example

Canadian Employment Insurance Current Insurance in Canada Insurance is a process whereby one pays a substantial amount of money in order to benefit from a cover or ability to get financial assistance upon a misfortune insured. Canadian Insurance and the other social security programs have been in operation since the WWII. Through diversification, insurance institutions and other social security bodies have expanded. As a result, sufficiency of family and individuals income is safe. Notably, the power of provision of such basics needs was at a crossroad before the social amenities came into rescue. Notably was the creation of Employment Insurance policy in 1940 (Raphael 142). The enactment of Employment (EI) Insurance policy since then has remained an important pillar to the nation’s modern social programs. The program has gone through different revolutions, both in its structure and the modalities of its operation (Baukens, Bolle?rot, and Weinert 132). This program has remained crucial, even today, it forms one of the main political agenda. The program provides temporary financial assistance to unemployed Canadians, who happen to have lost their job, on a cause not their own. The policy also demands that the beneficiary should involve himself into searching for an alternative job or he is involved in other programs, which would improve his skills. In addition, the policy of EI extends to the sick, pregnant, or those who are caring for a newborn or an adopted child (Kim 247). The Employment Insurance covers all these. In another perspective, those who care for the orderly or seriously sick members get assistance from this scheme. The policy is a big benefit to the people of Canada. The policy of Employment Insurance has several types of benefits, which come according to the situation at hand. There is the Employment Insurance Maternity and Parent Benefits, which assist expectant mothers and the Employment Insurance Sickness Benefits, which provide support to those who are sick, injured, and are unable to work (Kim 250). The expansion and diversification of the Employment Insurance policy has incorporated the Employment Insurance Compassionate Care Benefits, which provide to those who are temporary out of job to attend to one of their own, who is seriously sick and the Employment Insurance Finishing Fishing Benefits, which support professional fishermen (Kim 246). Away from the above benefits, the Employment Insurance policy has Initiative plans. They have put in place the Employment Insurance Special Benefits for Self Employed people. In this, the registered and qualified self-employed Canadians are able to access Employment insurance special benefits such as maternity, sickness, compassionate care, and parental. The other Initiative is the Extension of Eligibility period for the Military Families. This policy ensures that those whose leave as been shot, through a military requirement, the insurance fully compensate for that inconvenience. These are the policies, which form the current Employment Insurance policy up to date (Kim 248). The program represents he largest agenda in the federal government in terms of costs and remittance of revenue. As the administration and guarantee of this program falls under the government, the programs aims at becoming self-sufficient in the log run. In addition, in the future, the employee and employer contribution will have to cover administrative and benefit costs. This is the situation in the current insurance in Canada. 2. Criticism on the Program The program of Employment Insurance provides a great help to the people of Canada. However, it structure and management have not fallen short of criticism. First, the current Employment Insurance lacks the edge to get people back to work. The rules, which operate EI, are much lenient. Majority of citizens just get away with insurance benefits with little efforts attached on finding another job (Muffels 116). The government should impose tougher rules on the benefits one gets from insurance. Definitely, fewer disincentives will go to the unemployed. The government should embark on implementing a bill that overhauls the archaic policies in Employment Insurance. The former policies of EI do not take into consideration the unprecedented skills and labor available in Canadian people. Reasonable measures from the government will ensure people can work right near their homes. This will not only give the people work to do but also the move will address the shortage of skills as espoused by the employers. The former EI rules could not help find people jobs yet unemployed people benefited from the Employment Insurance Incentives. This was overburdening the economy as many citizens choose not to work as long as one is in a line of benefit as the EI rules dictate. In the event that the government drafts new regulations, the Canadian people will have to find suitable jobs in respect to one skills right at the home area (Nadeem 214). This is contrary to the old regulations of EI, which have allowed people to commute daily and far away to attend their jobs. Unlike the current operating regulations, which not take advantage of skills in the labor force, the new system would tap the skills, and incorporate them into economy building. Failure to enact changes in the EI, the country would fall into a trap of shortage of skills in the future, something the Employment Insurance is not addressing. In addition, the former Unemployment Insurance (UI) was far much better than current Employment Insurance (EI). The Unemployment Insurance was a viable fund collection institution and its policies meet logical requirements. The UI became EI due to fraud of over $57 back in 1995 (Muffels 243). That is factual discovery, which should see Employment policy disbanded. The Unemployment Insurance should come into effect, as the current Employment Insurance is dubious. The fact that the management and control of current Employment is under the government makes transparency unattainable. For example, after the theft in 1995, the Unemployment Insurance money collected was valued as tax foot the government’s deficits. In the first place, the EI money should not have gone into the custody. The EI money is a contribution of employers as well as the employees. Thus, it should only serve the interests of the contributors not the government. In the corridors of these Employment Insurances offices, theft does happen daily. The misappropriation of funds is an issue citizens of Canada have tolerated, and it should serve as an awakening to stub such heinous acts in the management of the EI finances. There is a lot of money on contributed. In this sense, the ownership of this contribution is in the center of employers and employees. The only way to make sure there is cordial management in the funds is to separate it from political interference. In this perspective, the monetary control should go to publicly approved professional managers (Nadeem 146). In this respect, the interests of the common workers will come into safe hands of their colleagues not the corrupt government. Under the new management, the rules should face new restructuring to ensure benefits go out to member contributors in a logical manner. Moreover, a record of inefficiencies surrounds the policy of Employment Insurance in Canada. A research done by Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall shows approved of such incongruence. In affirming to this statement, the current EI policies have come into the aid of seasonal workers, as some do nothing for months at a time. This is a serious abuse of the policy as the money contributed into this scheme goes into the wrong beneficiaries. The benefits currently upheld by the Employment Insurance should reflect the needs of the diverse workers in Canada. In accordance with Wall’s research, the artificial stability that Employment Insurance brought places such as borderline-sustainable areas has prevented the natural supply and demand pattern (Krahn, Hughes, and Lowe 87). Due to this, workers are not available in the western parts of Canada where demand is high. The irony of this situation is that the labor mobility is getting larger and larger, without much government concern. It is not sensible at all for companies to ship workers from abroad when workers float the country. Canada has many qualified workers, which the current Employment Insurance policy does not address. These challenges are what make the current Employment policy unreliable, hence, a need for change. The situation in the country is not a float of unemployed citizens; rather, it is a scenario where skilled worker force does not want to work. People in Canada are not hard-up for a job, if so, they would line up in companies and institutions to acquire a job. The current employment policy is very much ineffective well-enabled workers laze around in their homes assured that they will get pay for that. Others have reached a point of selecting the area of preference to work (Raphael 189). For example, many able workers cannot live with working in cold areas or hard labor industries, when they can just sit around and get paid for leisure. All these anomalies have come due to the existing policies in the current Employment Insurance. Furthermore, the current policies in Employment Insurance treat adults as equal. The truth is that not all adults’ capabilities measure the same. The Canadian Employment program applies different standards in the respective parts of the country. For example, a region like Alberta, which records low unemployment statistics, the government has made so difficult for one to acquire the Employment Insurance. This contrasts with other places where jobs are hard to come. In such areas, one can work for a short period in a year, and then collect Unemployment Insurance for the rest of the remaining period (Raphael 124). The government policies are very much inconsiderate simply because they subsidize many workers across the country yearly. As a result, the policies running the current Employment Insurance are not worthwhile. One more aspect still bedeviling the operations of the Employment Insurance is the move to use EI supplements the income received by the civil servants like teacher-assistants across Canada. The teacher-assistants or the Para-professionals do not get a yearly salary like normal teachers. As a result, during every winter and summer vacations, these workers are laid off. If this is to happen, hen these workers have to get a higher pay during tuition period, but the government does the opposite. Generally, the able qualified workers in Canada have perfected a system in which the government dollars go into the benefit of non-committed workers in the country. For example, someone can work for around five months and then apply for a maximum EI compensation rate totaling to $485 a week. This has came as a system built-in-scheme that has received a wide acknowledgement from people since they have realized under the new EI mechanism, it is easy to earn without no work. 3. Overall Critic and Proposition The current Employment Insurance policy is one of most inefficient and ridiculous institutions one can give reference. This explains the reason why most of the government-organized systems fail miserably. The misappropriation of employees and employers’ money has continued, while the few who benefit are not worth the getting the support. Just like many other big implementation form Canadian federal government, the Employment Insurance has already failed. Some of the benefit policies are misguided. For example, one cannot comprehend the policies of this system, which is only fair to an unmarried woman who lost her job, and has normal problems moving in a new area as compared to a young man capable of working normally in a company but would rather work for a half a year (Krahn, Hughes, and Lowe 89). Such kind of policies is the one operating the ineffective Employment Insurance social program. The government has embarked in an unfair deal of making some people work and toil all day, and get almost the same benefits as someone who fairly worked or did not attempt at all. The Employment Insurance program needs revamping in order to create a reasonable social system. In so doing, the efforts of the people will benefit from an equal amount of compensation. The workers in Canada should receive equal treatment from the government. The opposition which the pioneers of change towards acquiring a better Employment Insurance are getting is unwelcome. The simple logic should remain that the current Employment Insurance program is bogus. The people of Canada need a better social program that levels their skills in the labor industry (Raphael 213). However, this socio program is important to some people in Canada, it is as well unfair to others. Majority of the current beneficiaries of Employment Insurance do not deserve the benefits. This means that a change on how things are done will come as a fair deal to the workers in Canada. In order to avail equal and reasonable services on these benefits, the government should substantially cut down the Employment Insurance benefits (Krahn, Hughes, and Lowe 90). This should go down in an individual approach. That is the only way to wipe out those whom having took advantage of this system for long this system for a long period. Again, the government should consider compensating those employees, who engage in seasonal job offers. The disadvantage of this is that a majority of them will just labor through the season waiting for the compensation that comes with the policy covering seasonal employees. First, the workers know that the job is seasonal; therefore, the rationale of someone joining is not valid. They should not get their package. On the other part, the money paid to the Employment Insurance should go into the hands of professional managers (Kim 243). This means that the custodian should be people whose public confidence is high. The government should relinquish the authority to control, manage, or create policies upon the Employment Insurance program. After all, the people of Canada unilaterally own the program’s contributrion. By doing so, Employment Insurance program will again go back to its former days and people will appreciate the benefits accrued to them. Work Cited Baukens, Miche?le, Patrick Bolle?rot, and Patricia Weinert. Employability: From Theory to Practice. New Brunswick [u.a.: Transaction Publ, 2001. Print. Kim, Hyun-Joo. Morneau Sobeco Handbook of Canadian Pension and Benefit Plans. Toronto, 2008. Print. Krahn, Harvey, Karen D. Hughes, and Graham S. Lowe. Work, Industry, and Canadian Society. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2011. Print. Muffels, R J. A. Flexibility and Employment Security in Europe: Labour Markets in Transition. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2008. Print. Nadeem, Tariq. Immigrating to Canada and Finding Employment: A Do-It-Yourself Kit for Skilled Workers Class Applicants Under the Latest Immigration Policy : a Step-by-Step Settlement and Job Search Guide : a 3-in-1 Publication. Kitchener, Ont: Self-Help Publishers, 2005. Print. Raphael, Dennis. Poverty and Policy in Canada: Implications for Health and Quality of Life. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2007. Print. Read More