When is the earliest I can expect an ROE from Canadian contract work?

November 25, 2008 4:28 PM

A question regarding a Record of Employment for contract work in Canada.

[asking on behalf of a friend]

My contract is finishing on the 19th of December. There has been an extension on the contract that I signed last week, so the end-date is a known quantity to both myself and management and is not in dispute.

However, the HR rep is now telling me that my ROE won't be issued until the 30th of December because that is when I am getting my last paycheque.

If you are familiar with the Canadian EI system, you know that I can't complete my application until I have my ROE in hand, so that potentially implies up to 2 weeks more without cash flow.

When I read the governments rules and regulations regarding ROE issuance, I see that they have to issue it within five days of the end date, or within five days of becoming aware of the "work interruption".

All that being said, do I have a legal leg to stand on in demanding my ROE be issued immediately (per the work interruption clause), or, barring that, on the last day of my employment? When is the earliest I can require my ROE to be in my hand?

What's more, can I apply for EI now or before my contract is over, as I know the end-date of my contract, assuming that I do get my ROE from them?

posted by jon_kill to work & money (4 comments total)

You need your ROE to be submitted within 30 days of your EI application being filed. It won't speed things up having anything in the system before that. I tried that.

On your ROE, there's a last pay period box which indicates when you were paid last. This is the box EI told me they work from. They don't care if you stopped being at the office or whether your pay is two weeks behind, they just care about you receiving benefits starting from your last income coming in.
posted by scabrous at 5:11 PM on November 25, 2008

I should clarify one more thing:

You need to file reports based on your income which determine when you get benefits. Your last income would be the 30th, meaning you would be ineligible for benefits the two week period prior to this. So, even if you get your ROE earlier, your claim will lose two weeks at the start because you're being paid. Does this make sense?
posted by scabrous at 5:14 PM on November 25, 2008

No, you can't apply for benefits until your last day of work. Then you serve your two weeks of waiting and then another two weeks of unemployment before you get your cheque direct deposited on the Tuesday following. My personal experience with EI in the past year has been they count your two weeks from your last day worked - not your last paycheque (which makes sense because if your company screws you over or goes bankrupt it doesn't seem logical to not consider staff unemployed because they haven't recieved their last paycheque).
posted by saucysault at 5:32 PM on November 25, 2008

Oh, and I usually apply for EI and then submit my ROE two or three weeks later but still get my first EI payment in about 30 days.
posted by saucysault at 5:33 PM on November 25, 2008