The Newfoundland and Labrador Employers’ Council is calling for tighter control of Employment Insurance, on the back of a new survey they say demonstrates major concerns with the system. The study found that 32 per cent of respondents say current EI rules make it harder to find employees and 41 per cent of employers reported an employee turning down a job offer due to EI eligibility. The worst of the findings, said council executive director Richard Alexander, is that 60 per cent of employers said an employee had asked for a layoff in order to receive EI benefits. “Not only are employers competing against other employers for labour, they’re actually competing against the EI system. And that is not how the system is supposed to run,” said Alexander.
