‘Not a happy time’ for CERB recipients

Survey of low-wage and precarious workers shows ‘incredible stress and fear’

The statistics are clear: across the country, women and low-wage, racialized workers in precarious employment were hit hardest by this year’s COVID-19 job losses.

For touring sound engineer Rena Kozak, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was a necessary if insufficient lifeline; while it didn’t cover all her costs, it kept her afloat.

But as the benefit winds down next month — to be replaced in part by a new and as-yet undefined Employment Insurance program — uncertainty about the future is taking a heavy toll. “It is not a happy time,” said Kozak. Asurvey by the Toronto-based Workers’ Action Centre of more than 1,400 workers about their experiences accessing CERB provides a glimpse at what that mounting uncertainty looks like.

For low-earners, the most common concerns are the inability to find a job come fall, eligibility for EI and worries about surviving on what EI offers, the poll found.

“The incredible stress and fear of what was going to happen to people in their families from the uncertainty really seep through many of the comments,” said Mary Gellatly of Parkdale Community Legal Services, who helped analyze the survey responses.

“For me, that was quite striking to see.”

Some 45 per cent of respondents to the voluntary online poll, conducted in July, did not have a job. Just over a quarter were working full-time and 16 per cent were employed part-time.

Of those who qualified for CERB, more than half said they could survive on the monthly $2,000.

But even with CERB, 45 per cent

reported struggling to meet essential costs like rent, food and transportation — a figure Gellatly calls troubling.

“Even for people who were able to get by on CERB amounts, a number of people pointed out that they have no savings left,” she said.

The poll hinted at CERB’s limitations, especially for parttime workers.

Some 37 per cent of respondents in part-time jobs reported that the $1,000 eligibility cap was a barrier to accessing the funds, even if their hours had significantly decreased.

One in four unemployed respondents said they could not access CERB because they did not earn enough in the previous year — a minimum of $5,000. And despite a gradual reopening of economic activity, some workers still have little prospect of stable earnings.

Before the pandemic, Toronto resident Judy Li says she juggled a restaurant job and a temp agency gig at a transportation company.

She hasn’t been recalled to the former and is down to just a few hours a week at the latter. When she transitions from CERB to EI, she will be eligible for just $1,000 a month. “It’s not enough,” Li said. “To live in Toronto is a huge cost.”

While Li is hoping her hours will increase, some five per cent of respondents to the poll said returning to their old jobs is out of the question because their former employers have gone bankrupt.

For workers, research has already revealed flaws in Canada’s federal income supports. A study released this week by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that more than 80 per cent of the 4.7 million Canadians currently on CERB would receive nothing under the current EI regime. More than half of those at risk are women.

The CCPA’s research identified long-standing gaps in the country’s employment insurance program well before the pandemic, especially for lowwage earners and women.

In 2017, 42 per cent of all unemployed workers qualified for EI — but just 28 per cent of workers earning $15 or less did.

The study noted that women make up the majority of lowwage workers.

Now, even as employment figures start to rebound, July’s labour force survey shows that recovery is happening more slowly for low-wage workers and women.

The survey also shows that racialized workers, particularly those who identified as Black, South Asian or Arab, experienced disproportionately high unemployment rates during the pandemic.

While EI was designed to be a bridge between jobs, the pandemic means workers like Kozak still have no idea how far that bridge will need to extend.

With international touring cancelled, Kozak’s first gig is currently booked for August 2021. She has considered taking service sector jobs, but for now feels uncomfortable with the safety risks.

“I don’t think that it’s safe to reopen now. I think they’ve gone ahead and pushed the reopening for economic reasons,” she said.

“I think we’re just going to end up shut down again.”

This week, Kozak hit a troubling milestone.

“I’m particularly upset today because I did make the call to cash in one of my retirement savings,” she said.

Kozak is hoping to use the money to tide her over, while she takes on additional education to expand her skill set so she can do more work in her field remotely.

“I would like to not have to overturn my 20-year career and start from the bottom somewhere else. But, you know, I recognize that history is full of changes like this,” she said.

“Many times, people at the hands of some sort of societal crisis have had to change their lives entirely. And so that might just be who I am in this lifetime.”

Kozak says she thinks it’s in the government’s best interest to create a robust social safety net to prevent that kind of upheaval.

“I’m 40 years old, and I will now have half of my retirement savings left. And who knows, by 2022 I could have none of my retirement savings left, with great potential to become more of a burden to the system,” she said.

“It would be probably more advantageous to the government and the people in power to support people who are going through economic crisis.”

“I would like to not have to overturn my 20-year career and start from the bottom somewhere else.”

RENA KOZAK TOURING SOUND ENGINEER