Hontiveros: Declare COVID as occupational disease to compensate infected workers

Sen. Risa Hontiveros. (Screen grab/ Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — COVID-19 should be declared as an occupational disease under the government’s compensation program for employees to aid workers who have contracted the disease, Senator Risa Hontiveros said Wednesday.

Hontiveros said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) should make the declaration so that workers can avail of insurance and other benefits that are demandable under the Employees Compensation Act and Employees Compensation Program.

“Workplaces and mass transportation are the new ‘hot spots’ of virus transmission. Dapat nang aksyunan ng gobyerno ang panawagan na gawing ‘occupational disease’ ang COVID-19 to ensure that the workers who will contract the disease while at work or in transit will be compensated under the national policy for employment injury benefits,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

Hontiveros explained that once COVID-19 is listed by ECC as a work-related disease, workers will be entitled to medical benefits, compensation for lost income, and even funeral services in the event that the employee dies from the disease.

The senator added that the measure “is very crucial” especially with the rising cases and spread of new variants of COVID-19 that led to the imposition of stricter quarantine protocols in the National Capital Region (NCR), Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, and Rizal.

“Pinabalik ang manggagawa sa trabaho pero kulang na kulang ang pag-aalagang ibinibigay ng gobyerno. Huwag natin silang tratuhing parang imortal. Hindi curfew o checkpoints ang kailangang kundi garantisadong proteksyon sakaling mahagip o tamaan sila ng virus,” Hontiveros said.

(They are returning to work but they have not been given enough care by the government. Do not treat them as immortal. Curfew and checkpoints will not be their protection against the virus.)

Hontiveros, likewise, stressed that there may be no infection in the workplace but a worker may be infected in transit to and from his place of work, which she believes should also be compensable.

The senator added that a unified workplace and community disease surveillance database, a mandate she introduced in the 2021 budgets of DOLE, Department of Interior and Local Government, and Department of Health, should help ECC establish that the COVID-19 was indeed acquired at the workplace. – Liezelle Soriano Roy, INQUIRER.net trainee

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