Labor Law Reviewer Article 170.
Training Programs
Health, Safety and Social Welfare Benefits
BOOK NOTES
Article 162. First-aid Treatment
Article 163. Emergency Medical and Dental Services
 Allows employers in non-hazardous establishments to engage “on retained
basis” the services of a dentist or physician.
 Dentist or physician so engaged thereby does not become a regular
employee.
 “on retained basis” negates the idea that this engagement necessarily gives
rise to an employer-employee relationship.
Article 164. When Emergency Hospital Not Required
 When the existing hospital to be utilized should be within five kilometers
from the workplace or is accessible within 25 minute travel
 the employer must provide the transport in emergency cases
Article 165. Health Program
Article 166. Qualifications of Health Personnel
Article 167. Assistance of Employer.
 First-aid treatment means adequate, immediate and necessary medical and
dental attention or remedy given in case of injury or sudden illness
suffered by a worker during employment irrespective of whether or not
such injury or illness is work-connected before more extensive medical
and or dental treatment can be secured.
 It does not include continued treatment or follow-up treatment for any
injury or illness
 Any covered employer, employing 10-50 workers, is required to provide
the services of a graduate first-aider who may be one of the workers in the
workplace and who has immediate access to the first-aid medicines.
Article 168. Safety and Health Standards
Article 169. Research
Article 171. Administration of safety and Health Law
 The employer is required to observe safety standards and provide safety
devices
 Rules require the setting up of a safety committee
 Safety inspections are to be done annually by the Department, specifically
the Regional Office
Article 172. Policy
 Workmen’s compensation is a general and comprehensive term applied to
those laws providing for compensation for loss resulting from the injury,
disablement, or death of workmen through industrial accident, casualty, or
disease.
 Compensation in relation to work-connected injury or disease, essentially
means financial assistance and medical benefits that the Government
provides to the worker depending on the kind or degree of disability he
suffers
 The primary purpose of a workmen’s compensation act is to provide
compensation for disability or death resulting from occupational injuries
or diseases, or accidental injury to, or death of, employees
 Workmen’s compensation is a recognition of moral duty and the erection
of it into a legal obligation of the public, not of the mere employer, to
compensate reasonably those who are injured while in the employment of
others
 The theory of negligence as the basis of liability is discarded, and in
general, a right to compensation is given for all injuries incident to the
employment, with certain exceptions, the amount of which is limited and
determined in accordance with a definite schedule in a summary and
informal method of procedure, although the elements of compensability
are not uniform in all jurisdiction.
 Source of compensation
o Direct payment statutes provide for the payment of the
compensation by the employer directly to the employee
o Insurance statutes require the employer to take out insurance
either with an insurance bureau operated by the state or with a
private company, or to contribute to a compensation fund, and if
an employee is injured the compensation is paid by the insurer
or from the compensation fund.
 The Labor Code adopts the compensation fund type.
  All covered employers are required to remit to a common fund a monthly
contribution equivalent to one percent of the monthly salary credit of
every covered employee.
 The employee pays no contribution to the fund, in fact any agreement to
collect fund contribution from the employee is prohibited.
 The employers’ contributions make up the State Insurance Fund from
which comes the compensation to be paid to claimant employee or the
employee’s dependents in case the employee suffers from a work-
connected injury or disease.
 The compensation is in the form of medical supplies and services and/or
cash income if the employee is unable to earn because of the injury or
disease. Death benefits and funeral benefits are also given.
Compensation Claim
 A compensation claim starts with a work-related injury or disease that
befalls an employee.
 Within 5 days, he must notify his employer who must enter the notice in a
logbook.
 Within 5 days after making the entry, the employer reports to the SSS or
the GSIS the sickness, injury or death that he deems work-connected. In
the effect, therefore, the employer decides initially whether the injury or
sickness is work-related or not
 The claim goes to SSS or GSIS which decides on the claim.
 The two systems serve as administering agencies of the Employees’
Compensation Commission which is the policy-making body.
 The ECC is also the appeal body.
 What he system denies may be appealed to the ECC within 30 days.
 The ECC decision, if favourable to the worker, is final and executory;
otherwise, it may be brought up to the Court of Appeals for review in very
limited cases.
 The system, if reversed by ECC, ordinarily does not appeal to the Court of
Appeals because it is represented in the ECC itself.
P.D. No. 626
 P.D. No. 626 applies only prospectively, because it took effect on January
1, 1975, it applies to illness contracted on or after that date. For those
contracted before that date, the applicable law is the precious Workmen’s
Compensation Act.
 The old Workmen’s Compensation Commission was finally abolished on
March 31, 1976.
Trust Fund
 It is the trust fund and not the employer which suffers if benefits are paid
to claimants who are not entitled under the law.
 The employer is spared the problem of proving a negative proposition that
the disease was not caused by employment
 It is a government institution which protects the stability and integrity of
the State Insurance Fund against the payment of non-compensable claims.
 The employee, this time assisted by his employer, is required to prove a
positive proposition, that the risk of contracting the disease is increased by
working conditions.
Social Insurance
 Employees’ compensation is based on social security principles
 All covered employers are required by law to contribute fixed and regular
premiums or contributions to a trust fund for their employees.
 If increased contributions or premium must be paid in order to give
benefits to those who are now excluded, it is Congress which would
amend the law after proper actuarial studies. The Supreme Court cannot
engage in judicial legislation on such a complex subject with such far
reaching implications.
Presumptive Compensability for AFP members and Policemen
 The moment an AFP member suffers a contingency, the presumption is
that it is because of the nature of his work
 Provided that the evidentiary details of his injury, or death, are clearly
established through duly issued medical certifications, on his injury or
injuries, or death, by attending physician or duly authorized
representatives of the hospital where he is brought for medical treatment
Article 173. Definition of Terms
Compensable work-related injury defined
 What gives rise to a compensation claim is either injury or disease
 What is compensated is not the injury or the disease itself but the attendant
loss or impairment of earning capacity.
 Injury is any harmful change in the human organism from any accident
arising out of and in the course of the employment
 (a) For the injury and the resulting disability or death to be compensable,
the injury must be the result of an employment accident satisfying all
of the following grounds:
a. The employee must have been injured at the place where
his work requires him to be
b. The employee must have been performing his official
functions
c. If the injury is sustained, elsewhere, the employee must
have been executing an order for the employer
 “arising out of” and “in the course of employment” are said to be separate
tests which must be independently satisfied
 Arising out of refer to the origin or cause of the accident and are
descriptive of its character, while in the course of refer to the time, place
and circumstances under which the accident takes place
 It is sufficient if after the event it appears to have had its origin in a risk
connected with the employment, and to have flowed from that source as a
rational consequence
Proximate Cause
 Acting first and producing the injury, either immediately or by setting
other events in motion
 They constitute a natural and continuous chain of events, each having a
close casual connection with its immediate predecessor
 The final event in the chain immediately effecting the injury is a natural
and probable result of the cause which first acted, under such
circumstances that the person responsible for the first event, should, as an
ordinarily prudent and intelligent person, have reasonable ground to
expect at the moment of his act or default that an injury to some person
might probably result therefrom.
 Right to compensation extends to disability due to disease supervening
upon and proximately and naturally resulting from a compensable injury,
 Where the primary injury is shown to have arisen in the course of
employment, every natural consequence that flow from the injury likewise
arises out of the employment, unless it is the result of an independent
intervening cause attributable to claimant’s own negligence or misconduct.
Simply stated, all the medical consequences and sequels that flow from the
primary injury are compensable.
The 24-hour duty doctrine and its qualifications; moonlighting policemen
 The purpose of determining compensability of injury or death soldiers and
policemen and even firemen by the nature of their work may be
considered on duty round-the-clock. But this doctrine, while it relaxes the
workplace factor, does not dispense with the work-connection requisite.
 The 24-hour duty doctrine should not be sweepingly applied to all acts and
circumstances causing the death of a police officer but only to those
which, although not on official line of duty, are nonetheless basically
police service in character.
Going to or coming from work rule
 An injury or death of a covered member in an accident while he is going
to, or coming from, the workplace, shall henceforth be duly considered
compensable provided the following conditions are established
definitively:
o The act of the employee of going to, or coming from, the
workplace, must have been a continuing act, that is, he had not
been diverted therefrom by any other activity, and he had not
departed from his usual route to, or from, his workplace; and
o An employee on a special errand, the special errand must have
been official and in connection with his work
Injury at place of employment not necessary element of compensability
 Where an employee is constantly or occasionally on the street in
connection with his work, accidents thereon befalling in are compensable
as arising out of the employment.
Accidents of employment
 In connection with acts which are reasonably incidental to the employment
are deemed as arising out of such employment. Generally includes:
o Acts of personal ministration for the comfort or convenience of
the employer
o Acts for the benefit of the employer
o Acts don to further the goodwill of the business
o Slight deviations from work, from curiosity or otherwise
o Acts in emergencies
Acts of Ministration
 The course of employment is not broken because of acts of ministration
done by an employee to himself.
  Acts of ministration are those done by a person for the purpose of
satisfying the call of nature such as: quenching thirst, relieving himself by
way of urination or excretion
 They are deemed to be incidents of employment, so that injuries sustained
thereby are held compensable.

Rest or refreshment
Article 174. Compulsory Coverage
Article 175. Foreign Employment
Article 176. Effective Date of Coverage
Article 177. Registration
 The employees’ compensation law applies to all employers, public or
private, and to all employees, public or private, including casual,
emergency, temporary or substitute employees.
 Employer is covered compulsorily from first day of operation and the
employee from first day of employment
 Every employee is covered who is not 60 years of age or over 60 if he had
been paying contributions to the System prior to age 60 and has not been
compulsorily retired
 The employer may belong to either the GSIS or the SSS
Foreign employment
 Filipinos working abroad for employers doing business in the Philippines
are covered by the employees’ compensation law.
 They are entitled to the same benefits as for those working in the
Philippines
 Considering their situation, the application of the rule on accreditation of
hospitals and physicians and the rule requiring notice to employer is
relaxed.
Article 178. Limitations of Liability
 The employees’ compensation law is intended to assist innocent victims of
employment accident or work-related illness but not self-inflicted or self-
courted contingencies. Cases of this kind are excluded from the coverage
of the law.
Intoxication or Drunkenness
 Intoxication which will preclude compensation for injury resulting
therefrom consists in being under the influence of intoxicating liquor to
the extent that one is not entirely himself or so that his judgment is
impaired and his act, words or conduct is visibly impaired
Self-inflicted Injuries
 The injury must be intentionally self-inflicted, which contemplates a
deliberate intent on the part of the employee, not a failure on his part to
realize the probable consequences to himself of his foolish act.
 Suicide or provoked death is not compensable
Notorious Negligence
 Is something more than simple or contributory negligence
 It signifies deliberate act of the employee to disregard his own personal
safety
 Disobedience to rules and or prohibition does not in itself constitute
notorious negligence, if not intention can be attributed to the injured to end
his life
 The primary consideration for not finding notorious negligence is usually:
o Lack of knowledge or awareness of the peril or seriousness of
the existing danger
o The unexpectedness under the circumstances or the accident
o Failure to avoid known danger by labourer engrossed in his
work who momentarily forgets it is not negligence; neither is his
failure to exercise incessant vigilance in avoiding known danger
Article 179. Extent of Liability
Recovery under the Labor Code and the Social Security Law
 Simultaneous recovery of benefits under the employees’ compensation
program under the labor code and under the Social Security Law is
allowed
Article 180. Liability of Third Parties
Article 181. Deprivation of Benefits
Article 182. Employees’ Compensation Commission
Article 183. Powers and Duties
Article 184. Management of Funds
Article 185. Investment Funds
Article 186. Settlement Claims
Article 187. Review
Article 188. Enforcement of Decisions  It shall continue during the subsequent period of his disability, and as the
progress of his recovery may require.
Two separate funds
 Periodic medical report from the attending physician has to be submitted
 There are two State Insurance Funds and they are separate.  The employee is entitled to the benefits only for the ward services of an
 One for employees in the private sector and another for employees in the accredited hospital and accredited physician.
government sector.  ECC accredited hospitals and physicians are not allowed to:
 All revenues collected for the Employees’ Compensation Program shall o Ask any deposit from EC patients as requisite for admission
accrue to separate State Insurance Funds established in two different o To collect any amount from EC patients as charges or treatment
government entities, the GSIS and the SSS.  ECC accredited hospitals and physicians are privileged to claim
reimbursement with the ECC through the system for the expenses incurred
Article 189. Employer’s Contributions in the treatment of EC patients

Article 190. Government Guarantee Duration of Medical Liability

 The penalties to the employer who is delinquent in paying Employees’  For as long as the employee is sick because the liability for medical care
Compensation Commission contributions include imprisonment and or lasts during the “period of disability”
fine and a 3% penalty per month from the date the contribution falls due  This duty does not end when employment is terminated
until paid.  The law does not provide a maximum either in the amount to be paid or
the time period within which the medical attendance may be availed of by
Article 191. Medical Services the employee
Article 192. Liability  The law imposes on the SIF the obligation, such medical expenses as may
be necessary until the work-connected injury or sickness ceases, may be
Article 193. Attending Physician charged against the SIF and are to be paid by the System

Article 194. Refusal of Examination or Treatment Reimbursement of Medical Expenses

Article 195. Fees and other Charges  The employees’ right to reimbursement for medical expenses in not
extinguished upon his death.
Article 196. Rehabilitation Services  The rights of action of a deceased person are, in general, transmitted to his
 Services legal heirs, unless they are essentially personal in nature or the law
o Medical services, appliances and supplies declared them to be so.
o Rehabilitation services  Reimbursable medical expenses are not only incurred for the primary
 Cash Income Benefit or Pension due to: illness but even those for its complications even if the complications
o Temporary total disability developed after the employee’s retirement.
o Permanent total disability Rehabilitation Services
o Permanent partial disability
o Death Three stages of rehabilitation

Medical Benefits 1. Physical rehabilitation- this involves physical therapy by the rehabilitation
center of the ECC-accredited hospital, furnishing of prosthesis and
 The provision of medical services, appliances and supplies to the appliance all paid by the ECC
employee shall begin on the first day of injury or sickness.
 2. Vocational Assessment- this involves evaluation by guidance psychologist
of the ECC and sending to vocational school of those found readu to
reengage in gainful employment.
3. Vocational Placement- this involves job placement by Employment
Service Officer to help him become independent and gainfully employed.
Article 197. Temporary Total Disability
Article 198. Permanent Total Disability
Article 199. Permanent Partial Disability
Relapse
 Disability does not refer to the injury nor the pain and suffering it has
occasioned, but to the loss or impairment of earning capacity
 The is disability when there is loss or diminution of earning power
because of actual absence from work due to the injury or illness arising out
of and in the course of employment.
 The basis of compensation is reduction of earning power
Temporal Total
 A total disability is temporary if as a result of the injury or sickness, the
employee is unable to perform any gainful occupation for a continuous
period not exceeding 120 days, except as otherwise provided in Rule X of
the Rules.
Permanent Total
Amount if Benefits
 Any employee to benefit for temporary total disability shll be paid an
income benefit equivalent to 90% of his average daily salary credit,
subject to the following conditions:
o The daily income benefit shall not be less than P10.00 or more
than P90.00 nor paid longer than 120 days for the same
disability, unless the injury or sickness requires more extensive
treatment that lasts beyond 120 days, but not to exceed for
temporary total disability during the extended period
o The monthly income benefit shall be suspended in the employee
fails to submit a monthly medical report certified by its
attending physician
Period of entitlement
 From the beginning of the first day of such disability.
 If caused by an injury or sickness it shall not be pad longer than 120
consecutive days except where such injury or sickness still requires
medical attendance beyond 120 days but not to exceed 240 days from
onset of disability, in which case benefit for temporary total disability
shall be paid.
 The system may, however, declare the total and permanent status at any
time after the 120 days of continuous temporary total disability as may be
warranted by the degree of actual loss or impairment of physical or mental
functions as determined by the System
 The period covered by any relapse he suffers, or recurrence of his illness,
which results in disability and is determined to be compensable, shall be
considered independent or and separate from, the period covered by the
original disability.
 Such period shall not be added to the period covered by his original
disability in the computation of his income benefit for temporary total
disability.
 Where, after the period of temporary total disability had ceased, an
employee was found to be suffering from a permanent partial disability, he
was entitled to an award based upon partial disability permanent in
character.
 A disability is total and permanent if as a result of the injury or sickness
the employee is unable to perform any gainful occupation for a continuous
period exceeding 120 days except as otherwise provided for in Rule X of
the ECC Rules
 Permanent total disability means an incapacity to perform gainful work
which is expected to be permanent.
 This status does not require a condition of complete helplessness nor it is
affected by the performance of occasional odd jobs
 6 instances that are considered total and permanent disability:
o Temporary total disabilities lasting continuously for more than
120 days, except as otherwise provided for in Rule X hereof;
o Complete loss of sight of both eyes
o Permanent complete paralysis of two limbs
o Brain injury resulting in incurable imbecility and insanity
o Such cases as determined by the System and approved by the
Commission
Period of entitlement  Permanent total disability invariably results in an employee’s loss of work
or inability to perform his usual work
 The full monthly income benefit shall be paid for all compensable months  Permanent partial disability occurs when an employee loses the use of any
of disability particular anatomical part of his body which disables him to continue with
 Except otherwise provided for in other laws, decrees, orders or letters of his former work
instructions, the monthly income benefit shall be guaranteed for five years.
Article 200. Death
Suspension
 The formula for death benefit is the same as that for permanent total
The PTD benefit shall be suspended under any of the following conditions: disability or for permanent partial disability
1. Failure of employee to present himself for examination at least once a year Dependents and Dependency
upon notice by the System;
2. Failure to submit a quarterly medical report certified by his attending  Dependency means the claimant looked up to and relied on the
physician as required under Section 5 of Rule IV hereof; contribution of the decedent in whole or in part, as a means of supporting
3. Complete or full recovery from his permanent disability; or and maintaining herself in accordance with her station in life.
4. Upon being gainfully employed  A person may be dependent according to this view, although able to
maintain herself without any assistance from the decedent
Permanent Partial
 The test of dependency is not merely whether the contributions were
 A disability is partial and permanent if as a result of the injury or sickness necessary to bare subsistence; dependency may exist although the
the employee suffers a permanent partial loss of the use of any part of his dependent could have subsisted without the assistance he received, if such
body contributions were relied on by claimant for his means of living as
 The body parts and the corresponding period of equivalent disability are determined by his position in life. One need not be actually a part of the
specified in Article 199 deceased employee’s household in order to be a dependent. There may be
dependency notwithstanding the employee did not wok steadily or was
Amount of Benefits absent from the home at the time of his accidental death, and
notwithstanding the employee’s unlawful acts or his statement in his
 Any employee entitled to permanent partial disability benefit shall be paid application for employment that he had no dependents.
by the System a monthly income benefit for the number of months
indicated in Article 199 Spouse as Dependent
 If the indicated number of months exceeds 12, the income benefit shall be
paid in monthly pension; otherwise, the System may pay income benefit in  The status of dependency of the wife arises from the fact that marriage
lump sum or in monthly pension exists
 This status subsists even if the spouse is gainfully employed so long as
Effect of Gainful Employment there is still financial need for support
 Showing of marital status is essential
 A covered employee shall continue to receive the benefits provided
thereunder even if he is gainfully employed and receiving his wage and Two wives as claimants
salary
 ECC is empowered by law to resolve disputes in compensation claims
Distinguished from Permanent Total  If there are two women claiming as lawful wives of the deceased, the
Commission must resolve the dispute
Separated Spouse
 A spouse, to be considered a beneficiary, must be legitimate and living
with the employee at the time of the latter’s death.
 A surviving spouse who is legally separated or separated de facto from the
deceased employee may be held entitled to compensation benefits if the
separation occurred owing to any of the following circumstances: (read
page 628 of the book it is enumerated therein)
Parents as Dependents
 If the deceased employee is the adulterous child of the wife, the husband
cannot claim as a dependent of said deceased employee, in the same
manner that he is not duty-bound to support said deceased employee.
 No matter how financially desperate is the situation of said parent, it
follows that he cannot claim as a dependent in a compensation case where
the deceased is an abandoned child.
Death Benefit and Beneficiaries
Death benefits are paid in the form of cash monthly pension:
1. For life to the primary beneficiaries, guaranteed for five years
2. For not more than 60 months to the secondary beneficiaries in case there
are no primary beneficiaries
3. In no case shall the total benefit be less than P15,000
The beneficiaries are:
1. Primary beneficiaries:
a. Dependent spouse until he/she remarries
b. Dependent children (legitimate, legitimated, natural-born, or
legally adopted.
2. Secondary beneficiaries:
a. Illegitimate children and legitimate descendants
b. Parents, grandparents, grandchildren
 the death benefit shall accrue to the Employees’ Compensation Fund if the
deceased employee has no beneficiaries at the time of his death
Benefits for Death of Pensioner
 Death benefit shall be paid to the beneficiaries in an employee, while
receiving permanent total disability benefit, dies.
 It does not apply to cases where a member under permanent partial
disability dies during the period he is receiving monthly income benefits
for permanent partial disability.
 Under the ECC Amended Rules, the payment of said benefit shall begin at
the month of death and shall continue to be paid for as long as the
beneficiaries are entitled thereto
 After the guaranteed 5 years the beneficiaries shall be paid the monthly
income benefit for as long as they are entitled thereto
Article 201. Relationship and Dependency
Article 202. Delinquent Contributions
Article 203. Second Injuries
Article 204. Assignment of Benefits
 Compensation is unassignable and exempt from creditor’s claims has been
held within the police power of the State
 Secure the right of the injured worker or his surviving dependents in case
of death, to survival.
Article 205. Earned Benefits
Article 206. Safety Devices
Article 207. Prescriptive period
 The period to file claim should be within 3 years.
Period to File Claim of Minors and the Mentally Deficient
 The action to recover compensation under the former WCA under the
present EC law is based on liability created by statute, and prescribes in 10
years under the New Civil Code. This prescriptive period goes for the
minors as it is for the surviving parents
 The prescriptive period of 10 years begins to run from the time they reach
the age of majority
Article 208. Erroneous Payment
Article 209. Prohibition
 It is not fatal to a claim for compensation that the Government Service
Insurance System was not impleaded as a party respondent.
  GSIS, as ruled by the SC, is the proper party in employees’ compensation
cases as the ultimate implementing agency of the Employees’
Compensation Commission. The law and the rules refer to said System in
all aspects of employee compensation including enforcement of decisions.

Article 210. Exemption From Levy, Tax, ETC.