Employment Insurance in Ontario

April 30, 2015 8:25 PM

Hi. I have a question about how employment insurance works in Ontario. I read through the government of Ontario's webpage, but some things were unclear and I was hoping to get some clarity here. (If there's a better place to post this, please let me know!) I currently work as an actuarial student. In this context, student means that I'm still progressing through exams - I'm actually in my late 20's and well out of university. My job requires that I pass a series of exams. If I fail to pass an exam at least once every 18 months, I'll be fired. I'm writing an exam at the end of April and if I fail, I will meet the condition where the company can fire me. My question is - would I qualify for employment insurance payments if that were to happen?
posted by anonymous to Work & Money (3 answers total)

I believe you can get EI if you are fired as long as it isn't for major misconduct, so "didn't pass an exam" should be fine. (I'm assuming you have the necessary service hours.)

The Service Canada site says "you were dismissed for misconduct (it was determined that you voluntarily or deliberately committed an inappropriate action, a violation, or professional misconduct)", and failing an exam that has a high failure rate doesn't sound like it's your responsibility. This may not be true if you have done things which look like you haven't tried to pass -- skipped sessions the company offered to help you with, didn't schedule exams you were supposed to.

You might find some information in the appeals, I haven't looked through them.
posted by jeather at 10:26 PM on April 30, 2015

I would expect you to be able to get EI (note: IANYL, TINLA) offhand. As jeather says, it's not misconduct to fail to live up to their requirements, which is essentially what a failed exam looks like.

I would suggest calling Service Canada, to see if they have particular case law on the subject of actuarial exams or the like.
posted by Lemurrhea at 4:27 AM on May 1, 2015

Just adding from some relatively recent (five, six years ago) experience with EI: when you file a claim after being terminated, EI makes their initial determination based on what's in your ROE. So for example, in a layoff situation ("Code A"), that gets processed pretty quickly and hassle-free (if yours was a full-time permanent gig that had plenty of EI-insurable hours behind it).

Code M, on the other hand, covers a range of scenarios other than layoff where your employer's terminated your employment.

Code M - Dismissal
Use Code M when the employer initiates the separation from employment for any reason other than layoff or mandatory retirement (that is, the employee is leaving the workplace because he or she has been dismissed by the employer).

I've qualified for EI in a situation where Code A was the reason, and in one where Code M was the reason.

In the Code M case, I had to definitively prove that it was not for cause. In that case, when I submitted the claim with my Code M ROE, EI came back and asked for a written explanation for why I was canned.

The honest answer was I was told I was being let go, but not for cause, and that was it. I told them this. I think I may have used the word "Kafkaesque" in my response. I at least included that in an initial draft. Can't recall if that's what I sent them as the final.

Anyways, this then went to "adjudication," at which point they contacted the employer, who confirmed it wasn't for cause, and my claim was subsequently approved.

So it sounds like you might be able to qualify, but yeah, contacting Service Canada is a good idea.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:11 AM on May 1, 2015