Employment Insurance Regulations

9.002 For the purposes of paragraphs 18(1)(a) and 27(1)(a) to (c) and subsection 50(8) of the Act, the criteria for determining what constitutes suitable employment are the following:

• (a) the claimant’s health and physical capabilities allow them to commute to the place of work and to perform the work;

• (b) the hours of work are not incompatible with the claimant’s family obligations or religious beliefs;

• (c) the nature of the work is not contrary to the claimant’s moral convictions or religious beliefs;

• (d) the daily commuting time to or from the place of work is not greater than one hour or, if it is greater than one hour, it does not exceed the claimant’s daily commuting time to or from their place of work during the qualifying period or is not uncommon given the place where the claimant resides, and commuting time is assessed by reference to the modes of commute commonly used in the place where the claimant resides;

• (e) the employment is of a type referred to in section 9.003; and

• (f) the offered earnings correspond to the scale set out in section 9.004 and the claimant, by accepting the employment, will not be put in a less favourable financial situation than the less favourable of

  • (i) the financial situation that the claimant is in while receiving benefits, and

  • (ii) that which the claimant was in during their qualifying period.