Employment Insurance Benefits Denied.
Dave Jan 30, 2018
I was denied Employment Insurance on the basis that I was terminated for misconduct, what does this mean and what can I do?
Under the Employment Insurance Act, an individual is not entitled to receive employment insurance if they lose their employment because of their own “misconduct”.
Misconduct for the purposes of the Act is a high threshold and is not necessarily satisfied by an employer alleging, or even establishing, “just cause” for termination. The Federal Court of Appeal has held that in order to disqualify an individual from EI, misconduct must be wilful and the act that leads to the termination must be “conscious, deliberate or intentional”. In other words, for conduct to amount to misconduct under the Act and disqualify an individual from EI the individual must have known, or ought to have known, that their conduct could reasonably lead to termination.
If you have been denied EI on the basis of misconduct and you believe that your conduct does not meet the high threshold required by the Act, you should file a request for reconsideration with Service Canada within 30 days of the date of the decision denying you EI. You can access more information on this process here: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-reconsideration.html
If your request for reconsideration is unsuccessful the next stage in the process is an appeal to the Social Security Tribunal, a quasi-judicial administrative Tribunal which decides EI appeals.