Difference between revisions of "Penalties, Violations, and Offences with Employment Insurance (8:VIII)"

Types of penalties include warning letters, penalties, monetary penalties, prosecutions, and violations (discussed below). Most often, the  Commission chooses to issue a monetary penalty (a fine). For relatively minor cases, they may just issue a warning letter.  

Alternatively, a claimant could be prosecuted criminally (summarily). Section 135(3) of the ''EI Act'' sets the minimum fine at $200 for fraud  relating to a person’s employment and Record of Employment. The maximum fine is $5,000 and where appropriate, twice the amount of benefits falsely obtained, or the fine plus imprisonment for a term of up to six months (s 135(3)). In practice, criminal court cases are very rare,  even when a claimant asks to be prosecuted. This is because the courts require proof beyond a reasonable doubt, while for penalties the Commission only requires proof on a balance of probabilities. Also, the Commission need only write a decision letter to the claimant to impose a very large penalty, which is much simpler than proceeding with a court case.