Bulletin
Teamsters 155 – Canadian Emergency Response Benefit Amendments
April 20, 2020
To: All MoveUP Members at Teamsters Local 155
MoveUP is committed to keeping our members informed. We understand these are difficult times and we have been very involved with your Employer discussing ways in which we can assist members with loss of hours and working towards keeping more members employed during this time. We are proposing changes through job sharing arrangements, reductions in hours, and maintaining health and welfare benefits for temporary layoffs.
On April 15, 2020 the Federal government announced changes to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that people who earn $1,000 a month or less will now qualify for the CERB. Workers whose Employment Insurance (EI) benefits have run out after January 1 can apply, and people who are not recalled for seasonal work can also apply. People in the arts community now also stand to benefit from the CERB.
Therefore, to help more Canadians benefit from the CERB, the government is announcing changes to the eligibility rules to:
- Allow people to earn up to $1,000 per month while collecting the CERB.
- Extend the CERB to seasonal workers who have exhausted their EI regular benefits and are unable to undertake their regular seasonal work as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
- Extend the CERB to workers who have recently exhausted their EI regular benefits and are unable to find a job or return to work because of COVID-19.
These changes will be retroactive to March 15, 2020.
If you have already applied for Employment Insurance and have been accepted, you cannot apply for CERB.
Follow this link for more information about the new amendments to CERB.
Stay safe, stay well and be kind.
In Solidarity,
Kelly Quinn
Union Representative