If you file for a claim for employment insurance (EI) benefits what will happen to your ex-employer?

Nothing happens to the employer. They *will* be made aware of the investigation, of the results of the investigation, and of the conclusion of your claim. They will also be given an opportunity to appeal the result, or to participate in any appeal the employee may initiate.

Yet they aren't actually affected by the outcome...at least, so long as they haven't participated in the process.

If the employer participates in the process, and the EI proceeding goes to a Board of Referees, then the parties *may* be bound to the evidentiary findings of the Board. (If the Board finds that there was harassment, then the employer may have a hard time resisting that claim in wrongful dismissal litigation. If the Board finds that there wasn't harassment, this may be fatal to a constructive dismissal claim by the employee.) In Ontario there was a 2005 case, Korenberg v. Global Wood Concepts, in which the employer had fired the employee alleging misconduct, and fought the employee's EI claim on that basis. The Board of Referees found that there was no misconduct, and the employee then sued in wrongful dismissal. The employer tried to defend on the basis of the misconduct, and the Court found that the employer was not able to advance that defence again in light of the Board of Referees.

The argument *turns* on the employer's participation in the process. However, more recently, the Ontario Court of Appeal questioned whether or not it was appropriate for the Courts to accept the Board of Referees' findings even in cases where the employer does participate.

he'd probably get fired.