Employment Insurance – C.E.R.B. & SUB
April 3, 2020
All our members are no doubt aware that due to the COVID-19 outbreak the government has made several announcements related to E.I. benefits. Service Canada has introduced the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which has complicated matters for our members & reps.
At this moment in time it looks like some members who have E.I. claims already running will be collecting E.I. benefits and members who started a new E.I. application after March 15th may be collecting CERB. Unfortunately, the government has changed the rules several times. With our members in the middle of the process, we are unsure who will be paid E.I. and who will collect CERB until the benefits are actually paid next week.
We are also getting calls asking when eligible members will receive Supplementary Unemployment Benefits (SUB) and how much the benefit will be. General Motors has been very slow in responding to our enquires.
We are currently working through both these issues and will post the answers as soon as we have them. We apologise for the delay; however, the circumstances that keep changing are beyond our control.
While we wait for a response from General Motors it is important that if you have not applied for E.I. do so now. Members who already have their access codes do their report on or after Friday 3rd April.
Steve McMullen, Financial Secretary
Canadian Emergency Response Benefits