‘There’s no guarantee I’m safe’
EI worker dedicated to helping job seekers now has an additional worry
Travis Lahnalampi talks about employment insurance as a foreign aid worker might talk about shepherding vaccines halfway around the world, or a social worker helping a recovering drug addict get back on his feet.
“I’m dealing with people on the second-last step of our financial safety net” before going on social welfare, said Lahnalampi, who has worked at Service Canada for 13 years. “It’s giving back to those that are in that down-peak in their life, for whatever reason.” But after the announcement Thursday that 19,200 government jobs will disappear, Lahnalampi, 38, is starting to fear for his own job.
Layoffs will devour 12,000 government jobs over the next two years, with another 7,200 eliminated through retirement and voluntary departures.
Now, Lahnalampi said his job has no guarantee, especially in the wake of massive cuts last year to the EI system. After starting at Service Canada in Sudbury as a 25-yearold, he moved to a Toronto EI call centre before settling at a Mississauga processing centre in 2008.
“I’m worried,” said the claims adjudicator. “There’s no guarantee I’m safe.”
The budget comes months after Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Diane Finley announced the closure of 98 employment insurance processing centres, in favour of consolidated offices at 20 locations. John Gordon, president of Public Service Alliance of Canada, told the Star in December that the scale-back will lead to 1,200 fewer jobs at Service Canada, as the EI system shifts to automation. Lahnalampi’s Mississauga processing centre has been identified as one of the “safe” sites. Still, Lahnalampi, who has three boys, sees a duality in the budget plans. The government introduced a large-scale, $74 million reboot of its EI system, which will encourage the unemployed to seek work while still collecting benefits. It will also spend an additional $21 million to help connect EI collectors with work opportunities. Lahnalampi thinks the proposal might wean people off the system, but only in the short term. “If (the government) thinks targeting workers through its EI initiative will get people more securely employed, they might get people into work, but I see our environment being precarious,” he said, suggesting jobs may not stick. Lahnalampi considers his work a community service; he’s proudly attuned to the labour market shifts, the needs that his clients face and the human interaction he provides. But he is also aware that EI transformation — like automated services or improvements to the EI system that seek to abolish disincentives to work — could squeeze him out of a job. “Whatever comes down will be applied to me.”