UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACT
(C.R.C., c. 1576)
REGULATIONS RESPECTING UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
Short Title
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Unemployment Insurance Regulations.
Interpretation
2. (1) In these Regulations,
"Act" means the Unemployment Insurance Act;(Loi)
"pay period" means the period in respect of which earnings are paid to or enjoyed by an insured person; (période de paye)
"record of employment" [Revoked, SOR/83-351, s. 1]
"separation from employment" or "separation" [Revoked, SOR/85-3, s. 1]
"Social Insurance Number" [Revoked, SOR/87-614, s. 1]
"Social Insurance Number Card" [Revoked, SOR/87-614, s. 1]
(2) [Revoked, SOR/90-756, s. 1]
(3) For the purposes of these Regulations and sections 3 and 4 of the Act, "international organization" means
(a) any specialized agency of which Canada is a member that is brought into relationship with the United Nations in accordance with article 63 of the Charter of the United Nations; and
(b) any international organization of which Canada is a member, the primary purpose of which is the maintenance of international peace or the economic or social well-being of a community of nations.
SOR/83-351, s. 1; SOR/83-490, s. 1; SOR/85-3, s. 1; SOR/87-614, s. 1; SOR/89-160, s. 1; SOR/90-756, s. 1; SOR/92-164, s. 1.
3. to 7. [Revoked, SOR/80-416, s. 1]
8. (1) Employment in Canada by Her Majesty in right of a province that would, except for paragraph 3(2)(e) of the Act, be insurable employment is included in insurable employment if the government of the province enters into an agreement with the Commission whereby it agrees to waive exception and to insure all employees engaged in such employment.
(2) For greater certainty, employment in Canada by Her Majesty in right of a province, for the purposes of subsection (1), only includes employment in Canada of employees who are appointed and remunerated under the Public Service Act or Civil Service Act of a province or who are employed in Canada by a corporation, commission or other body that is, for all purposes, an agent of Her Majesty in right of the province. SOR/92-164, s. 2(F).
9. (1) Employment in Canada of any person by the government of a country other than Canada or of any political subdivision thereof or by an international organization that would, except for paragraphs 3(2)(f) and (g) of the Act, be insurable employment, may be included in insurable employment if the employing government or the international organization, as the case may be, consents thereto in writing and the Commission concurs therein.
(2) Where a consent or a concurrence has been given pursuant to regulations made under the former Act and has not been revoked, it shall be deemed to be a consent or concurrence given pursuant to this section.
10. (1) Employment on a ship or vessel outside Canada or partly outside Canada that would be insurable employment if the employment were in Canada, is included in insurable employment if that employment is
(a) on a ship or vessel of Canadian registry or licence, except where that ship or vessel is regularly employed in voyages between ports outside Canada and has been chartered to a person resident outside Canada; or
b) on a ship or vessel, other than a ship or vessel of Canadian registry or licence,
(i) that has been chartered to a person resident in Canada and that is regularly employed in voyages from a port in Canada,
(ii) that is principally controlled in Canada and regularly employed in voyages from a port in Canada and the owner or managing owner thereof resides or has a place of business in Canada, or
(iii) where employment thereon is subject to the provisions of the Act by virtue of an agreement between the Government of Canada and the government of the jurisdiction in which that ship or vessel is registered.
11. The employment of a person outside Canada, other than a person employed on a ship or vessel as described in section 10, is included in insurable employment where that person
(a) normally resides in Canada;
(b) is employed outside Canada or partly outside Canada by an employer who is resident or has a place of business in Canada;
(c) would be employed in insurable employment if such employment were in Canada; and
(d) is not employed in employment that is insurable under the laws of the country in which he is employed.
12. Employment in any of the following employments, unless it is excepted employment under subsection 3(2) of the Act or excepted from insurable employment by any other provision of these Regulations, is included in insurable employment:
(a) employment of a union member by his union in conducting union business, other than picketing in a labour dispute;
(b) employment of a person as an apprentice or trainee notwithstanding that the person does not perform any services for his employer;
(c) employment of a person as a clergyman or member of a religious order;
(d) employment of a person in connection with a barbering or hairdressing establishment, where that person
(i) provides any of the services that are normally provided therein, and
ii) is not the owner or proprietor thereof;
(e) employment of a person as a driver of any taxi, commercial bus, school bus or any other vehicle that is used by a business or public authority for carrying passengers, where that person is not the owner of the vehicle or the proprietor or operator of the business or public authority;
(f) the position of a person who holds an office, as defined in the Canada Pension Plan,
i) in or under any department or other portion of the public service of Canada set out in Schedule I to the Public Service Staff Relations Act or Schedule II or III to the Financial Administration Act, or
(A) is appointed to the office and is remunerated therefor under the Public Service Act or Civil Service Act of a province that, pursuant to subsection 8(1), has agreed to insure all of its employees, or
(B) holds the office in or under a corporation, commission or other body that is for all purposes an agent of Her Majesty in right of a province referred to in clause (A); and
(g) employment of a person who is placed in that employment by a placement or employment agency to perform services for and under the direction and control of a client of the agency where that person is remunerated by the agency for the performance of such services.
SOR/90-761, s. 1; SOR/92-164, s. 3(F).
13. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the employment with an employer in any week of a person whose cash earnings are less than 20 per cent of the maximum weekly insurable earnings and who is employed for less than 15 hours is excepted from insurable employment.
(2) Where the cash earnings of a person for a pay period described in any of the following paragraphs are paid or payable to him otherwise than in respect of weeks, subsection (1) does not apply to the employment of that person during any such pay period:
(a) a pay period that is a multiple of a week where
(i) the person has cash earnings for each week in the pay period, and the cash earnings for the pay period are equal to or exceed an amount that is a like multiple of the amount of cash earnings referred to in subsection (1), or
(ii) the person is employed in each week in the pay period and the total number of hours of employment in the pay period is equal to or exceeds a number of hours that is a like multiple of 15;
(b) a pay period that is a semi-monthly pay period where
(i) the person has cash earnings for each week or part of a week that falls in the pay period, and the cash earnings for the pay period are equal to or exceed an amount that is 2 1/6 times the amount of cash earnings referred to in subsection (1), or
(ii) the person is employed in each week or part of a week that falls in the pay period, and the total number of hours of employment in the pay period is 33 hours or more;
(c) a pay period that is a monthly pay period where
(i) the person has cash earnings for each week or part of a week that falls in the pay period, and the cash earnings for the pay period are equal to or exceed an amount that is 4 1/3 times the amount of cash earnings referred to in subsection (1), or
(ii) the person is employed in each week or part of a week that falls in the pay period, and the total number of hours of employment in the pay period is 65 hours or more.
(d) a pay period of seven consecutive days that begins on a day other than Sunday, where
(i) the person has cash earnings for the pay period and the cash earnings for the pay period are equal to or exceed 20 per cent of the maximum weekly insurable earnings, or
(ii) the person is employed in the pay period for a total number of hours that is equal to or exceeds 15 hours; or
(e) a pay period that consists of more than one period of seven consecutive days and that begins on a day other than Sunday, where
(i) the person has cash earnings for each period of seven consecutive days in the pay period, and the cash earnings for the pay period are equal to or exceed the product obtained by multiplying the amount of cash earnings referred to in subsection (1) by the number of periods of seven consecutive days in the pay period, or
(ii) the person is employed in each period of seven consecutive days in the pay period and the total number of hours of employment in the pay period is equal to or exceeds the product obtained by multiplying 15 by the number of periods of seven consecutive days in the pay period./
SOR/78-809, s. 1; SOR/79-168, s. 1; SOR/80-805, s. 1; SOR/82-44, s. 1(F); SOR/92-164, s. 4(F); SOR/94-440, s. 1.
14. The following employments are excepted from insurable employment:
(a) and (b) [Revoked, SOR/90-756, s. 2]
(c) employment of a person in the reserve force of the Canadian Forces unless it is employment on continuous duty or for a period of special duty in excess of 30 days;
(d) employment of a person who is a member of the clergy or of a religious order if that person has taken a vow of perpetual poverty and that person's remuneration is paid directly, or by that person, to the order;
(e) [Revoked, SOR/92-164, s. 5]
(f) employment of a person if premiums are payable in respect of his employment under
(i) the unemployment insurance law of any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, by reason of the Agreement between Canada and the United States respecting Unemployment Insurance, as amended to June 21, 1985, or
(ii) the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act of the United States;
(g) employment in Canada of a person who resides outside Canada if premiums are payable in respect of services performed by him in Canada under the unemployment insurance laws of a country other than Canada;
(h) employment of a person for the purpose of a rescue operation, if he is not regularly employed by the employer who employs him for that purpose; and
(i) employment of a claimant on a job creation project approved by the Commission pursuant to subsection 25(1) of the Act.
SOR/78-710, s. 1(F); SOR/79-52, s. 1; SOR/79-85, s. 1; SOR/85-836, s. 1; SOR/90-756, s. 2; SOR/90-761, s. 2; SOR/92-164, s. 5.
15. (1) The following employments are, subject to subsection (2), excepted from insurable employment:
(a) employment, other than as an entertainer, of a person in connection with a circus, fair, parade, carnival, exposition, exhibition or similar activity if that person
i) is not regularly employed by the employer who employs him in that employment, and
(ii) is employed by that employer for less than seven days in a year;
(b) employment of a person by Her Majesty in right of Canada, the government of a province or a municipality in respect of any census enumeration if that person
(i) is not regularly employed by the employer who employs him for that purpose, and
(ii) is employed by that employer in that employment for less than 25 days; and
(c) employment of a person by Her Majesty in right of Canada, the government of a province, a municipality or a school board in connection with any referendum or election to public office by popular vote if that person
i) is not regularly employed by the employer who employs him for that purpose, and
(ii) is employed by that employer in that employment for less than 25 days.
(2) Where an employment that is excepted from insurable employment under paragraph (1)(a), (b) or (c) is for a number of days that exceeds the number of days mentioned in that paragraph, that employment is insurable from its commencement.
16. (1) The employment of a person by an employer in agriculture, an agricultural enterprise or horticulture that would otherwise be insurable is excepted from insurable employment where that person has not been employed and remunerated in cash by that employer for a period of seven or more working days during the year in which that employment occurs.
(2) For the purposes of this section,
"agriculture" means the operations of farming when carried out on a farm for the benefit of any person who is a farmer and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, includes
(a) clearing land for the purposes of farming,
(c) conservation of the soil, including the construction, maintenance and operations of tile drainage systems, ditches, canals, reservoirs or waterways exclusively for the purposes of farming,
(d) harvesting, storing or grading any natural product of farming,
(e) preparing land for the growing and harvesting of wild berries,
(f) raising bees and producing honey,
(g) breeding or raising horses, beasts of burden, cattle, sheep, goats, swine, furbearing animals and birds of any kind or producing eggs,
(h) dairy farming and the processing of milk, butter or cheese on the farm where it is produced,
(i) producing maple sap, maple syrup or maple sugar, when carried out on a farm for the benefit of any person who is a farmer,
(j) offering for sale or selling, off the farm for the benefit of the farmer, any of the products of the operations described in paragraphs (a) to (i), if the offering for sale or selling is incidental to those operations, and
(k) exhibiting, advertising, assembling, freezing, storing, grading, processing, packing and transporting off the farm for the benefit of the farmer, the products described in paragraph (j), if those operations are incidental to the offering for sale or selling described therein;
"agricultural enterprise" means the business of agriculture carried on for the benefit of any person who is a farmer;
"horticulture" means
(a) the operations relating to the propagating, producing, raising or harvesting of
(i) legumes, flowers, shrubs or ornamental grasses, and
(ii) seeds, seedlings, grafts and cuttings of legumes, flowers, shrubs or ornamental grasses, and
(b) the operations relating to landscape gardening where the landscape gardening is incidental to the carrying out of
(i) any of the operations described in paragraph (a), or
(ii) agriculture, and includes all the services incidental paragraph (a) or (b) to the carrying out of any of the operations described in if those services are performed at the place where the operations are carried on.
SOR/82-745, s. 1; SOR/83-595, s. 1; SOR/92-164, s. 6.
17. In this Part, “plan“ means a wage loss plan that covers insured persons employed by an employer, and includes a Weekly Indemnity Plan, a Special Weekly Indemnity Plan, a Cumulative Paid Sick Leave Plan and an Enhanced Cumulative Paid Sick Leave Plan referred to in sections 20, 21, 22 and 23, respectively.
18. This Part applies where insured persons, who are employed by an employer and are covered by a plan that meets the requirements of section 20, 21, 22 or 23, benefit from a reduction of the employer’s premium in an amount at least equal to five-twelfths of the reduction.
19. (1) Subject to subsection (2), an employer’s premium rate fixed under subsection 50(1) of the Act shall be reduced, in respect of insured persons employed by that employer who are covered by a plan that meets the requirements of setion 20, 21, 22 or 23 and is a qualifying plan pursuant to subsection 24(3), by the percentage by which
(a) the experience cost ratio calculated under subsection (3) in respect of each category of insured persons covered by such plans is less than
(b) the first payer cost ratio calculated under subsection (4) for all insured persons.
(2) An employer’s premium rate fixed under subsection 50(1) of the Act shall not be reduced in respect of
(a) an insured person who is not covered under a plan;
(b) an insured person who is covered under a plan that does not meet the requirements of section 20, 21, 22 or 23; or
(c) an insured person whose eligibility to use days of paid sick leave is deferred under a plan that meets the requirements of section 22 or 23.
(3) For the purpose of determining the experience cost ratio for a year, the Commission shall, in respect of each category of insured persons covered by plans that meet the requirements of section 20, 21, 22 or 23, divide
(a) the average cost of benefits paid under section 11 and paragraph 14(b) of the Act to insured persons whose interruption of earnings was by reason of illness, injury or quarantine.
by
(b) the average amount of the yearly insurable earnings for the insured persons, with both averages being taken over the three years ending concurrently with the second year preceding the year for which the calculation is made.
(4) For the purpose of determining the first payer cost ratio for a year, the Commission shall, in respect of all insured persons, divide
(a) the average cost of benefits that would have been paid under section 11 and paragraph 14(b) of the Act to insured persons whose interruption of earnings was by reason of illness, injury or quarantine, as estimated by the Commission, if benefits payable under a group sickness or disability wage loss indemnity plan or paid sick leave plan were disregarded for the purpose of determining benefits otherwise payable to persons under the Act,
by
(b) the average of the yearly insurable earnings for the insured persons, with both averages being taken over the three years ending concurrently with the second year preceding the year for which the calculation is made.
20. The requirements of a Weekly Indemnity Plan are the following:
(a) an insured person who is employed by an employer and covered by the plan becomes eligible to claim benefits in respect of an illness or injury on or before the first day of the month following
(i) completion of a period of not more than three months of continuous employment, or
(ii) if the plan is based on an hour-bank principle, the accumulation of not more than 400 hours of active employment;
(b) where an insured person is required to serve an elimination period during which no benefit is payable under the plan, that period does not exceed 14 consecutive days from the beginning of the period of incapacity due to illness or injury;
(c) benefits are paid in full regardless of
(i) the amount of the benefits that are payable to insured persons under the Act, and
(ii) the amount of the benefits that are payable from any other source, if those benefits are not considered as earnings under section 57;
(d) the benefits payable to an insured person are equivalent to an amount that is equal to or greater than 55% of the insured person’s normal weekly insurable earnings;
(e) subject to the elimination period referred to in paragraph (b), full benefits payable to an insured person are reinstated
i) in the case of the recurrence of an illness or injury, within three months of active employment following their most recent absence due to that illness or injury or, where the plan is based on an hour-bank principle, after the accumulation of not more than 400 hours of active employment by that person following their most recent absence due to that illness or injury, and/
ii) in the case of a new illness or injury, within one month of active employment following the most recent absence due to another illness or injury or, where the plan is based on an hour-bank principle, after the accumulation of not more than 150 hours of active employment by that person following their most recent absence due to another illness or injury;
(f) in any case not referred to in paragraph (e) and subject to the elimination period referred to in paragraph (b), benefits are payable in respect of an illness or injury until the earliest of
i) the end of a period of at least 15 weeks during which the benefits are paid,
(ii) the end of the period of incapacity due to the illness or injury,/
(iii) the date the insured person retires, and/
(iv) the date of separation for any reason other than illness or injury where notice of the separation was given before the onset of the illness or the occurrence of the injury; and
(g) the only conditions precluding the payment of benefits to an insured person to whom they would be otherwise payable are conditions that preclude payment to an insured person
(i) who is not under the care of a licensed physician,
(ii) whose illness or injury is covered by federal or provincial laws respecting workers’ compensation, the Canada Pension Plan or An Act respecting the Québec Pension Plan,
(iii) whose illness or injury is intentionally self-inflicted,
(iv) whose illness or injury results from service in the armed forces,
(v) whose illness or injury results from war or participation in a riot or in disorderly conduct,
vi) who becomes ill or is injured during a leave of absence or a period of paid vacation,
(vii) who is in receipt of benefits under section 18 or 20 of the Act,
viii) whose illness or injury is sustained while committing a criminal offence,
ix) who is engaged in employment for a wage or profit during any period for which the person claims benefits under the plan,
(x) who becomes ill or is injured after having lost employment by reason of a stoppage of work attributable to a labour dispute at the place where the person was employed, if the person’s right to benefits is reinstated on the person’s return to active employment,
(xi) who is an inmate of a prison or similar institution,
xii) who is not entitled to benefits payable under the Act because the person is not in Canada,
(xiii) whose illness results from the use of drugs or alcohol and who is not receiving continuing treatment for the use of drugs or alcohol,
(xiv) who, in respect of an illness or injury resulting from a motor vehicle accident, is covered by a provincial plan described in paragraph 57(2)(d),
xv) who is receiving a retirement pension from the employer,
(xvi) who is absent from work because of plastic surgery performed solely for cosmetic purposes, except where the need for surgery is attributable to an illness or injury, or
(xvii) who, in the case of a recurring disability, is receiving benefits according to a reinstatement provision of a group long-term disability plan, where the reinstatement period under that plan does not exceed six months.
21. The requirements of a Special Weekly Indemnity Plan are the following:
(a) the plan must be provided or financed, in whole or in part, by an employer that is Her Majesty in right of a province, a Crown corporation incorporated under the laws of a province, a municipal or public authority in a province or an institution primarily controlled, supported or financed by a province;
(b) the plan must satisfy all the requirements of section 20, except paragraphs 20(e) and (f);
(c) subject to the elimination period referred to in paragraph 20(b), full benefits payable to an insured person are reinstated within one month of active employment following their most recent absence due to illness or injury; and
(d) in any case not referred to in paragraph (c ) and subject to the elimination period referred to in paragraph 20(b), benefits are payable with respect to the insured person’s illness or injury until the earliest of
(i) the end of a period of at least 52 weeks during which the benefits are paid,
(ii) the end of the period of incapacity due to the illness or injury,
(iii) the date the insured person retires, and
(iv) the date of separation resulting from any reason other than illness or injury where notice of the separation was given before the onset of the illness or the occurrence of the injury.
SOR/82-106, s. 3; SOR/85-3, s. 2; SOR/89-32, s. 2.
