Help with getting EI
 

So today I found out that my mom got laid off for work. They told her that they were loosing money and so they had to fire her. They gave her 1 week of notice. My mom has worked there for over 6 years but took half a year for leave of absence to take care of my grandma. So im not sure if that makes its only 3 years of continual work. So I was wondering how long notice is she suppose to get before termination of employment. I read online that its 1 week for every year she's been working there with a maximum of 8 weeks. My mom told him that and he doesn't want to compensate the few weeks of pay. So he said either wait 3 weeks and he'll sign the EI slip or come back and work for another 3 weeks. I told my mom I don't want her to go back working there because of the atmosphere, what can I do? Is there another way of obtaining EI without communicating with him?

Thanks RSers.

Tell her to go to the Service Canada location and apply. It's ridiculously easy. I worked a job for a year and got EI. With 6 years exp. there she will have no issues.

The Serivce Canada people can help her open a dispute against him. There are laws which he must follow. It's not optional.

Your mom is also entitled to severance pay if she's been an employee for 6 years.

Feel free to pm me if you have any concerns, I've helped other RS'ers with this situation in the past.

Thanks

why does she have to wait 3 weeks? ROE supposed to be generated upon termination and sent to Service Canada. EI will take another 6 weeks to process. He's delaying your mom's payouts by 2mo's by asking her to wait. I'd go talk to LRB about options and talk to a UBC employment law services student re: legal action.

I think he's saying he doesn't want to pay severance and if his mom is going to push the issue he's giving her notice and she can come back and work for 3 weeks. Your employer can either give you severance or give you notice he was hoping she would just go away but if she won't he's saying OK I"m giving you notice come back and work the 3 weeks I owe you and then I'll give you your ROE. Doing it this way she I don't believe she would be entitled to any severance.

It's a dirtbag play by the employer but as far as I know it's in the rules.

I went through a similar thing with my dad.

First thing I'd do is look at the circumstance of your mom taking leave of absence. If the absence is legit, then your mom is considered an employee for six years, not three years. Here is a list of the legit reasons for leave of absence:

Government of B.C., Labour and Citizens' Services, Employment Standards Branch, Leaves and Jury Duty Factsheet

Let's assume your mom was still considered an employee during the leave. That means you go with 6 years. The rules here are pretty clear. Your mom is entitled to either the following options:

He can lay her off right away. Then he must pay severance, which is calculated as follows:

Six years of employement is six weeks pay.

Or he can give her written notice that he is laying her off. She is entitled to 6 weeks notice and she must be allowed to work and paid for those 6 weeks.

Unfortunately the choice of A or B is up to the boss, not your mom. If he chooses option B, then your mom has to go to work for those 6 weeks. The boss can also choose a combination of A and B. But either way, he has to pay.

Good luck!

If her experience is the same as many I have talked to, she is going to get very little help and what you get is often contradictory. One employee tells you one thing, so you go and do that then come back and talk to another and they say something different. The result is lots of delays every time you move in the new direction.

There are rules. Service Canada enforces that.

Rules are rules, there is only one set of rules that they run by.

Yes, humans make mistakes and one employee might tell you something different from another. But this doesn't mean he shouldn't take his mother there to get help.

So from my understanding my two options are either A or B from Eff-1's post. Theres no way to force an severance pay right? Because she was already verbally terminated of employment by the end of this week. Can he really just tell her to come back and work for another 6 weeks to cancel the severance and use that as 6 weeks notice?

I had another question. If my mother has a partnership with my father's restaurant but isn't employed there would it affect getting EI?

Can you give advice for temporal employement?

I am a PT worker who recently had his hours reduced, but in my employee contract it doesn't state that i'm guaranteed minimum hours, but I have been working full time for 6 months before they cut them.

pm sent. I just need some more information

Either way, your mom is entitled to six weeks pay. The boss can give her six weeks written notice and she works those six weeks. Or he can give her written termination her now and pay her the six weeks up front. Or he can do a combo (i.e. work 3 weeks and get paid, then pay the remaining 3 weeks as severance). The decision is up to the boss.

Verbal means nothing. What counts is what's in writing.

The partnership shouldn't matter for your EI claim.

Call Bob Yeager at Wrongful Dismissal Lawyer Vancouver, Constructive Dismissal BC, Employment Law

He specializes in getting people the severance pay they deserve, based on the law and past precedence. Based on what you said about him not wanted to sign the EI slip, there is definitely some shady things going on there. Don't be stupid and take all your advice from an internet forum. Be smart and phone a PROFESSIONAL.

He is a friend of mine, so I can personally vouch for him as being an honest and helpful person. He has given me some very helpful advice over the last 10 years about employment and severance.

Sorry I can't help about applying to EI, I would suggest trying to call or visit the Services Canada people, as they will give direct answers.

sorry to jack thread but, I also would like to know how to recieve EI? I have worked at my job for 1.5 years. Do I receive EI only if I were laid off? What if I want to quit so I can go to school full time? I do not like the atmosphere of the work place, it is depressing, I have only stayed for that long because of the stability and the only way I can survive on my own right now. Everyone talks shit about eachother and very racist, I can't bring it up to management because I don't believe that will do much good. thanks

You can't quit your job and collect EI. Even if you were laid off you can't be a student and collect unless it's part of a program set up by EI where you're being retrained. That's not to say people don't do it or find way's around but that's the way the rules are written and if you're caught cheating the system you'll be paying it all back with interest.

If u dont like your job, quit. U can't go collect employment insurance cause "u don't like you job and atmosphere" lol. And no u can not quit your job to go to school while getting EI...
There is other ways as in, furthering your education in your employment field and get some reimbursement for the school and time missed. But these are things u should go I employment services.

This is from the Service Canada website: Various reasons may prompt you to quit voluntarily your employment. However, to be paid regular benefits, you must prove that quitting your job was the only reasonable alternative in your case. So Doritos if harassment or discrimination exist against you at your workplace you maybe able to quit and qualify for EI if you can prove your case.

With regards to school this is also taken from the Service Canada site:


As a general rule, to be entitled to regular benefits, you must show that you are unemployed, able and willing to work and actively looking for suitable work. Therefore, if you are taking a training course on your own initiative, without being directed to do so by a designated authority, you must show, without a doubt, that taking a course is not an obstacle to your active job search or to your acceptance of appropriate employment.

I'm not saying that at all. I'm just telling you of my personal experience and that of several others in the same boat. The folks were very nice but nobody could give me an answer that jived with what an earlier counselor had given me. 4 employees there and each one contradicted the other. Unless you ask the correct specific question you will not get the right answer. I also ran into several others there who found the same thing.

I ended up having to borrow money for retraining, pay out of pocket living expenses out of town for 6 weeks and have no income for over 2 months while somebody up the line corrected things. It cost me thousands of dollars. I was given the impression that I was stupid because I didn't know how the process worked and was expected to know how to do everything myself. After contributing to EI since 1966 I finally had to access it and the experience was frustrating and costly. I was not impressed at all.

For every person that is struggling to get benefits in the manner of which they are set in law you can show another person that is trying to squeeze the system to get a government paid vacation because of 'atmosphere'.

Solid effort.