Like I said before, you can cut their pay, but don't ever, ever kick them in the teeth

Workers who help Canadians obtain employment insurance benefits are demanding that Human Resources Minister Diane Finley apologize and resign for implying they have caused the backlogs that are forcing some jobless people to wait months for their first cheque.

The Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU) said Thursday that about 2,500 of its members have filed grievances against Ms. Finley over a letter she wrote in November to the Charlottetown Guardian.

Cut jobs, attack pensions and benefits they fought for and won fairly, yes, they'll grumble for a long time before they act.  But blame them publicly for the elected government's screw-ups on top of all that, try to make them the villain in how cuts to services affect Canadians,  well, back at you  - 2,500 times over.

Good for you, folks at EI.  We add our many voices to yours.

For those idiots blaming public servants for this madness…

Ask yourselves who blew the whistle?

And put your partisan leanings aside, get your brain in gear, read the article, and…think.  Who, in this article is upset, frustrated besides the clients? (emphasis mine)

It’s calledthe Office of Client Satisfaction (at Service Canada), and it promises to work to “resolve any issues brought to its attention.” But call centre agents who field questions about EI claims say they have been warned by their bosses not to mention its existence to the frustrated people on the other end of the line.

“The only way they are allowed to give information about it is if the client specifically says, ‘Do you have information about the Office of Client Satisfaction,’ ” said Steve McCuaig, the national vice-president of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union. “So how are they supposed to ask for something they don’t even know exists?”

“Why should they have to call an MP when they've got me on the phone?” said one Service Canada call-centre agent. “I tell them we are late, but can’t take their complaint? Crazy. Who wouldn't go nuts at that? We deliver bad news but aren't accountable to it.”

So why do you supposed such a ridiculous order was given?

Well, due to budget restraints ordered by the harper government, the workforce assigned to process claims is smaller, while higher unemployment has increased the number of claims resulting in longer and longer delays in processing which in turn leads to more calls and complaints from clients.

Since there is less staff to answer complaints and there’s nothing much they can say in any event, someone just gave the order to dodge the calls.  Not much point in answering, would be my guess as to their motive, if all you can tell the clients is that you can’t meet the 28 days max per claim.

Until July, those processing agents were required to return calls to people who had complaints about their claims within two days. That has been increased to five days because the agents could not keep up with the volume of calls. And Service Canada staff say even the five-day deadline is not being met.

Can’t be giving out that bad news since budget cuts and layoffs were not supposed to affect essential services.
Next – who is interested in maintaining the pretense that essential services aren’t being affected?  Not the public servant who is now overworked because some of her mates were laid off as surplus.  The only ones who would want to implement this insane policy are harper & co., the ones who ordered the cuts and want to keep pretending services aren’t affected.

“The Ministers in our system of government are ultimately accountable at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day…” - Baird



“Ministers are accountable to Parliament for the conduct of their ministries and their offices.” - - Kenney



But if you watch the whole Kenney tape, it seems that ministerial accountability is one of those nebulous words    for CONs, like contempt of Parliament.  Depends what side of the hog trough your bacon is parked at.  “It’s almost like in the eye of the beholder. ... It can mean a lot of different things.”

With harper's regime, it always means lies and misdirection, avoidance of accountability.

You’re really mad at the CONs for this, right, wingnuts?

A new panel created by the Harper government will move to raise employment insurance premiums by the maximum allowed, despite calls to leave payroll taxes frozen in light of Canada’s fragile jobs picture.

Canadians will start feeling the hit on their paycheques when the two-year freeze on EI premiums announced in the 2009 budget comes to an end on Jan. 1. Employers will also have to cough up more in premiums for their workers, which economists and business groups warn could hurt employment.

That’s a double-whammy, there.  Hurts employment and…here it comes…takes money out of the hands of hard workin’, Timmie’s drinkin’ Canadians to support them-thar no-account, lazy unemployed soashlists.

Damn!!!!

So you right wingers are making your protest signs at this moment, correct?

But don’t despair.  There’s plenty of bad news for the bleeding heart Liberals and socialists as well.  While people with jobs will be paying more into EI, people who have been paying into it and now need it will receive less.

As of Saturday, Ottawa will cancel an extra five weeks of regular EI benefits and end a program that provided up to an additional 20 weeks of benefits for longer-serving employees.

For older workers who suddenly find themselves unemployed after years of long-term service this is a crushing blow, says Ontario’s Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Monique Smith.

…The EI clawback is nationwide.

The CONs don’t get it, and Steve must have cheated his way through economics.  They treat stimulus action like a check list:  promise made, promise kept!!!!  As long as some action was taken that could be coupled with a PMO press release and a photo op, mission accomplished as far as they are concerned.  Setting rigid deadlines with no regard as to the current and future economical and job climate shows ignorance of the problem, and lack of concern for those they claim the actions were supposed to help.

The Bank of Canada is talking about “unusual uncertainty” in reference to the economy, saying that the stagnating U.S. economy is what’s keeping economists awake at night.

Higher deductions on paychecks, uncertainty over employment, cuts to EI that working Canadians, laid off during the recent crisis...those things are very close to home for people.  Photo ops in front of cool, expensive military equipment that we don't really need, a stadium in Quebec, and billions for prison cells for unreported criminals probably won't  win the CONs a lot of votes right now.