ECCs Forty Years of Enhanced Benefits and Services to Persons with WorkRelated Disabilities

Created in November 1, 1974 by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 442, or the Labor
Code of the Philippines and became fully operational with the issuance of Presidential
Decree No. 626, or the State Insurance Fund, the Employees Compensation
Commission is a quasi-judicial corporate entity created to implement the Employees
Compensation Program (ECP). The ECP provides a package of benefits for public and
private sector employees and their dependents in the event of work-connected
contingencies such as sickness, injury, disability or death.
As implementer of the ECP, the ECC is mandated by law to provide meaningful and
appropriate compensation to workers. Its main functions are formulation of policies and
guidelines for the improvement of the ECP; review and make a decision on appealed
EC claims disapproved by the Social Security Systems (SSS) and Government Service
Insurance System (GSIS); and initiation of policies and programs toward adequate
occupational health and safety and accident prevention in the working environment.
Under the ECP, a worker who figured in a work-related injury, illness, disability, or
death is entitled to a loss of income benefit, medical benefits, rehabilitation services,
carers allowance, death benefits, and funeral benefits.
As of September 2014, there are 187,669 EC benefits claims from the private sector
were paid amounting to P763.82 million and 9,488 EC benefits claims worth P101.72
million from the public sector.
Death and pension benefits comprised the highest share in the EC payments made
both by the SSS and the GSIS.
Katulong at Gabay ng Manggagawang May Kapansanan
In 2002, the Employees Compensation Commission (ECC), an attached agency
of the Department of Labor and Employment, took a proactive approach in the delivery
of rehabilitation services for workers with disabilities, as a result of work-connected
sickness or injury. Through the Katulong at Gabay sa mga Manggagawang may
Kapansanan, or KaGabay Program, qualified workers with work-connected disabilities
are evaluated and referred to various institutions for appropriate rehabilitation services
which includes physical restoration, or the provision of physical and occupational
therapy, prosthesis, and assistive devices, and livelihood or vocational training to help

persons with work-related disabilities (PWRDs) achieve functional independence and

become economically productive as they enter the mainstream.
Since 2008, the physical restoration component of the KaGabay program has
benefitted an increasing number of PWRDs with physical and occupational therapy
sessions, prosthetics, and other assistive devices, Labor and Employment Secretary
Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said.
ECC Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis states that 474 PWRDs availed
of KaGabays physical restoration services from 2008 up to 2014 while 86 were
provided with prosthesis and assistive devices amounting to P2,483,000.
On the other hand, Director Banawis also reported that in 2014, a total of 166
PWRDs underwent various livelihood and vocational training courses and business
orientation seminars.
With the aim of monitoring the beneficiaries progress and activities, the Work
Contingency, Prevention, and Rehabilitation Division of the ECC conducted 100 home
visits in 2014.
In our home visits, we found out that 40 PWRD-beneficiaries were already
engaged in income-generating livelihood undertakings; nine are engaged in freelance
job; another nine are planning to expand their small businesses; four are seeking
employment; four are continuing physical therapy; two have returned to wage
employment; while one is already employed abroad. We are happy to note that the
program was able to help the PWRDs start anew, Banawis stated.
We are continuously finding ways on how we can further help the PWRDs to
build their lives again, Baldoz ended.