On 6 April 2021, the Employees’ Compensation Commission ("ECC") of the Department of Labor and Employment ("DOLE") issued Board Resolution No. 21-04-14 ("Board Resolution") which declared the inclusion of COVID-19 as one of the listed occupational and work-related diseases. As a result, Filipino workers who contract the COVID-19 virus will receive compensation from the government. According to DOLE Secretary Silvestre Belo III, an employee who has been infected by COVID-19 will receive PhP 30,000, which is higher than the PhP 10,000 compensation generally given on work-related illness.
ECC is a government corporation, considered as an attached agency of DOLE, created to implement the Employees' Compensation Program which allows employees, whether public or private, to receive benefits or compensation in cases of work-connected contingencies including sickness, injury, disability or death.
The Board Resolution provides that a worker is eligible to receive compensation in any of the following conditions:
- There must be a direct connection between the offending agent or event and the worker based on epidemiologic criteria and occupational risk (e.g. healthcare workers, screening and contact tracing team);
- The tasks assigned to the worker would require face-to-face and close proximity interactions with the public, or with confirmed cases for health care workers;
- Transmission occurred in the workplace; or
- Transmission occurred while commuting to and from the workplace.
Claimants need only submit the following to be eligible to receive the compensation:
- Certificate of employment from the employer, indicating last day of reporting to work;
- Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result showing positive result for COVID-19 from any Department of Health-accredited testing facility;
- Medical records as appropriate; and
- Completed application forms.
