Hello Sessionals,

We wanted to pass along a quick update regarding Records of Employment (ROEs), as this is an issue that many of you have had concerns about.  We have spoke with many of you about this, and have been in discussions with Employee/Labour Relations all week on this issue.

An ROE is issued when there is an interruption in earnings, or quite simply at the end of your contract.  This needs to be issued within 5 days of the end of contract, and is required for accessing Employment Insurance. The Employer uploads these to Service Canada, which you can then access online.  These must be issued within 5 days of the last day in which you were paid (which was April 29th), not the last day worked. At this point, they are roughly a week late.

We have been informed, perhaps not surprisingly, that an issue with MOSAIC, McMaster’s multi-million dollar computer system, has caused the delay.  Approximately 100 ROEs have been uploaded, but another 175 ROEs have yet to be uploaded by the Employer.

We were informed that a software update is happening overnight (between Thursday night and Friday morning), and assuming that all goes well, ROEs will be automatically generated and uploaded to Service Canada tomorrow morning.  If a computer glitch remains, the Employer will have to manually upload them.  Please check our website tomorrow afternoon for some update.

Once all ROEs have been uploaded, the Union will continue discussions with the Employer to ensure that proper processes are in place for the spring semester to prevent another delay. The present practice is frankly unacceptable, and a clear violation of federal regulations. New processes are needed.

We are aware that this has caused issue for many members who are applying for EI.  If you have any concerns about this, please do not hesitate to contact your Union.