Examples for independent workers or professionals
The following examples are provided to help independent workers or professionals determine if they qualify for EI benefits based on insurable employment.
These are examples only. After you submit an application for EI benefits, Service Canada will let you know in writing if you are entitled to receive EI benefits. If you disagree with the decision, you have the right to request a reconsideration .
Independent workers or professionals (engaged in a business) may be able to register for access to EI special benefits for self-employed people.
You are a tradesperson
You are an independent worker pursuing your trade. Frequently, you work in the construction industry under a contract for services and control your own working hours. Since you are considered to be working a full work week, you are therefore not unemployed, and you cannot receive EI benefits for as long as you are engaged in fulfilling a contract.
However, when you do not have a contract, you may be considered unemployed and eligible for EI benefits, as long as you have also worked as an employee in insurable employment. You must prove that you are available and looking for work at all times. You must also be willing to accept and seek work as an employee under a contract of service.
You are a truck owner
You are the owner of a truck that you drive yourself to haul loads on a contract basis. Since you are considered to be working a full work week, you are therefore not unemployed, and you cannot receive EI benefits for as long as you are engaged in fulfilling a contract.
However, when you do not have a trucking contract, you may be considered unemployed and eligible for EI benefits, as long as you also have worked as an employee in insurable employment. You must prove that you are available and looking for work at all times. You must also be willing to accept and seek work either on a contract basis with your truck or as an employee under a contract of service, with or without your truck.
You are a taxi driver
If you are working as a taxi driver and your hours of work are not controlled by an employer, you are considered to be working a full work week. You are therefore not unemployed, and you cannot receive EI benefits.
In this instance, the activity of taxi driving is considered a principal means of livelihood. This is true regardless of whether the taxi is rented, personally owned, or driven on behalf of someone else, and regardless of how much you earn or how many hours you work.
You are a real estate agent
You are employed as a licensed real estate agent selling or purchasing real estate for clients on a commission basis. It is determined that you control your own hours of work. Since you are considered to be working a full work week, you are therefore not unemployed, and you cannot receive EI benefits.
However, if your real estate licence is surrendered, suspended, or revoked, or if you become unemployed because of the birth of a child, the need to care for a newborn or newly adopted child or children, illness, injury, or quarantine, or the need to provide care or support to a gravely ill family member, an interruption of earnings occurs. In this case, you may be able to establish a benefit period, and you may be eligible for EI benefits, as long as you meet the requirements for regular, maternity, parental, sickness, or compassionate care benefits.
You are a commissioned salesperson
If you work as a salesperson under a contract of employment and your earnings from that job come primarily from commissions, you are considered to be working a full work week. For this reason, you are not unemployed, and you cannot receive EI benefits.
However, if your employment contract terminates or if you become unemployed because of the birth of a child, the need to care for a newborn or newly adopted child or children, illness, injury, or quarantine, or the need to provide care or support to a gravely ill family member, an interruption of earnings occurs. In this case, you may be able to establish a benefit period, and you may be eligible for EI benefits, as long as you meet the requirements for either regular, maternity, parental, sickness, compassionate care, or family caregiver benefits.
Professionals
Professional workers who do not work in an employer–employee relationship, such as doctors, lawyers, or accountants, are considered self-employed.
If you are a self-employed professional worker, you are considered to be working a full work week. Therefore, you are not unemployed, and you cannot receive EI benefits. As a professional worker, it would be difficult for you to show that your employment is so minimal that you could not rely on it as a principal source of livelihood.