A local construction worker waiting for Employment Insurance is calling the process ridiculous.
Myron Uchacz filed his claim a month before Christmas and says he is still waiting for it to go through.
“You go on the website you don’t get an answer,” he told media Tuesday afternoon. “You come here (to Service Canada) they don’t have an answer for you. All they can tell you is that they’re definitely behind. That doesn’t cut it.
“The mortgages still come, the car payments still come out. You have to eat. This is ridiculous,” he said.
Uchacz has been filing an EI claim after the construction season for the past five years and has never had a problem.
He is one of an estimated 500,000 Canadians, according to national media reports, waiting for a claim to be processed.
MP John Rafferty (NDP, Thunder Bay-Rainy River) said the problem lies in the fact that around 1,000 Service Canada employees have been let go since the last federal election as the Conservative government tries to save money by consolidating processing centres. Rafferty said the cutbacks, as well as the ramifications, are unfortunate.
“It takes a lot of time and you can’t do that with phone trees and you can’t do that with machines you have to have people (processing claims),” he said.
And Rafferty said it’s the wrong time to be cutting services like EI.
“We’ve all heard the dire warnings from Europe and from other places in the world,” Rafferty said. ““It spells disaster for those who are seeking unemployment insurance.”
Uchacz said that’s the excuse he’s been given my Service Canada. There just isn’t enough manpower to process claims.
“This (seasonal workers laid off) happens every year. This is nothing new. The old cliché that if we ran a business this way we wouldn’t have a business we don’t have a choice. The government isn’t going to dry up they can just keep right on rolling but us guys can’t,” he said.
A construction worker files just as many if not more hours than an employee who works year-round he said.
“We pay just as much as anyone else pays into it the biggest problem is not being able to get an answer, it’s not knowing if you’ve even got a claim there’s nothing there’s no answer for you.”
Rafferty agrees adding money in EI is from people who pay into it, not the government and that people should receive the service they pay for.
“Let’s not forget that employment insurance the money for employment insurance is put in by employers and employees this is not government money.”
Those waiting for claims are encouraged to speak with an MP.
“If you need help come and see us don’t be shy,” Rafferty said.
In the meantime, Uchacz said the only way for him to survive is to cutback expenses wherever he can.
