This is the Canadian Association of the Non-Employed, which consists of people who are unemployed or under-employed, unpaid workers, part-time workers, self-employed workers, et cetera.

Since 2006, our government has adopted a number of measures to improve employment insurance, including the following: an extra five weeks of regular benefits were added and more than 500,000 Canadians have used them; the 2010 budget has extended by one year the improved version of the work-sharing program, which currently protects the jobs of 150,000 Canadians; unprecedented investments in training were made in order to help unemployed Canadians return to work — whether or not they were eligible for employment insurance — for a total of $1.5 billion over two years to help 150,000 Canadians in 2009-10; an additional 5 to 20 weeks of em ...[+++]ployment insurance benefits were made available to long-tenured workers who paid into EI for many years and have difficulty finding new jobs; a total of 2.6 million self-employed workers gained voluntary access to special benefits, which has been a long-standing demand; the 2010 budget has made it easier for relatives of crime victims to access sickness benefits; for the first time ever, 2.6 million self-employed workers in Canada have access to sickness and compassionate care benefits under the employment insurance program; and in 2006, our government expanded the number of family members and others who can receive compassionate care benefits.

Protection of self-employed workers and spouses of self-employed workers and, when and in so far as recognised by national law, the life partners of self-employed workers, from discrimination based on sex should be strengthened by the existence of a body or bodies in each Member State with competence to analyse the problems involved, to study possible solutions and to provide practical assistance to the victims.

In order to improve employment opportunities for workers in the internal market and to contribute thereby to raising the standard of living, a European Social Fund is hereby established in accordance with the provisions set out below; it shall aim to render the employment of workers easier and to increase their geographical and occupational mobility within the Union, and to facilitate their adaptation to industrial changes and to changes in production ...[+++] systems, in particular through vocational training and retraining.

Allowing employers to resort to the use of replacement workers or even the threat of it during a labour dispute gives the employer an unfair advantage at the bargaining table and renders meaningless the workers' right to strike.

Since having children and helping relatives is not unemployment, AFEAS asks that the government first render eligible for employment insurance program benefits any person who performs the role of parent or helper, regardless of his or her status as a paid employee, self-employed worker, student or person in the home; increase maximum insurable earnings to the level that will be used by the Quebec parental insurance plan in 2006, that is to say $57,500, since the current l ...[+++]evel of $39,000 is very low and has not been increased in a very long time; review benefits granted at the birth or adoption of a child so that parents receive replacement income at a minimum rate of 70 percent of insurable earnings, without a qualifying period; provide, for parents, 15 weeks of maternity benefits, five weeks of non-transferable paternity benefits — so that only fathers can use them — and 35 weeks of parental or adoption benefits shareable between both parents, which already exists; pay a minimum, universal weekly benefit to mothers and fathers on the birth or adoption of a child over the number of weeks during which they are not eligible for maternity, paternity, parental or adoption benefits.