Premier Pat Binns has offered a Federal Committee some possible solutions to a problem that penalizes claimants who take short periods of work.
The Premier hopes some immediate changes to the regulations can solve the problem at least until legislative changes could be implemented.
Premier Binns says "the whole focus of the legislation is supposed to be encourage people to work as long as possible and the change to hours was supposed to encourage people to take even short periods of employment. That is not the case for some people and it is important the problem be corrected because it can result in some workers being penalized for taking a short period of work."
The Premier has written to both the Federal Minister and to the Committee of MP's reviewing the legislation. He has suggested possible changes to the regulations that could help solve the problem.
Regulations could be changed to permit the accumulation of hours before they constitute a week as part of the divisor. At the present time even one hour of work in a week can result in that week being used in the calculation of benefits. A change could permit the worker to accumulate a number of hours of work over a longer period and then bundle them together into one week.
The criteria to determine a week for calculating the divisor could also be changed to include a minimum number of hours. For example, the week might not be used as a divisor week until there is a minimum of 15 hours of work in that week.
Premier Binns says the fact the committee of Federal MP's has been established indicates an understanding a problem exists, and the fact a number of Atlantic and Island MP's are on the committee indicates solutions are being sought that reflect the realities of a seasonal workforce.
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For more information contact: Moe Rodgerson at 368-4400