THE EMPLOYER is liable for three separate and distinct kinds of liabilities for any work-related illness or injury that the seafarer may have suffered during the term of the contract.
The medically repatriated Filipino seafarer is entitled to medical treatment at cost to the employer, apart from sickness allowance and disability benefits.
Away from his family and working on board vessels sailing non-stop for weeks or months the world’s oceans, the Filipino seafarer is physically, mentally and emotionally stressed.
The risks of his getting killed, injured or ill are high as the seafarer is constantly exposed to fluctuating temperatures caused by variant weather changes of extreme hot and cold as the ships cross ocean boundaries.
The Department of Migrant Workers Standard Employment Contract (DMW-SEC) mandates that the employers must:
(a) provide medical treatment to the seafarer at their cost;
(b) pay the seafarer sickness allowance equivalent to his basic wage, and
(c) compensate the seafarer for his permanent total or partial disability as finally determined by the company-designated physician.
First, Section 20-B (2), paragraph 2, of the DMW-SEC entitles the seafarer medical treatment that is aimed at the speedy recovery of the seafarer and the restoration of his previous healthy working condition.
The contract imposes on the employer the liability to provide, at its cost, for the medical treatment of the repatriated seafarer for the illness or injury that he suffered on board the vessel until the seafarer is declared fit to work or the degree of his disability is finally determined by the company-designated physician.
This liability for medical expenses is conditioned upon the seafarer’s compliance with his own obligation to report to the company-designated physician within three days from his arrival in the country for diagnosis and treatment.
Second, since the seafarer is repatriated to the country to undergo treatment, his inability to perform his sea duties would normally result in depriving him of compensation income. The employer must provide the seafarer with sickness allowance that is equivalent to his basic wage until the seafarer is declared fit to work or the degree of his permanent disability is determined by the company-designated physician. The period for the declaration should be made within the period of 120 days or 240 days, as the case may be.
Third, once a finding of permanent (total or partial) disability is made either within the 120-day period or the 240-day period, employer must pay the seafarer disability benefits for his permanent total or partial disability caused by the work-related illness or injury.
The Supreme Court emphasized the separate treatment of, and the distinct considerations in, these three kinds of liabilities in the case of Javier v. Philippine Transmarine Carriers Inc. (GR 2014101 July 2, 2014).
While the DMW-SEC did not expressly state that the employer’s liabilities are cumulative in nature —so as to hold the employer liable for the sickness allowance, medical expenses and disability benefits—it does not also state that the compensation and benefits are alternative or that the grant of one bars the grant of the others.
While a seafarer is not entitled to total and permanent disability benefits, this does not rule out his right to the other benefits provided for under the DMW-SEC such as reimbursement for medical expenses, sickness allowance and benefit for partial disability caused by a work-related injury.
The company is liable for the sickness allowance at the time when he is under treatment and waiting for the company-designated doctor to decide if the injury or illness is work-related.
If the seafarer is declared fit for duty after the medical treatment, the sickness allowance is the only benefit he could get.
If the seafarer is further assessed disability grading due to irreparable physical damage, he could receive the said sickness allowance plus the disability benefits.
A finding of permanent disability means a permanent reduction of the earning power of a seafarer to perform future sea or on board duties; permanent disability benefits look to the future as a means to alleviate the seafarer’s financial condition based on the level of injury or illness he incurred or contracted.
Disability is intimately related to one’s earning capacity. The test to determine its gravity is the impairment or loss of one’s capacity to earn and not its mere medical significance. In disability compensation, it is not the injury per se that is compensated but the incapacity to work.
Disability need not render the seafarer absolutely helpless or feeble to be compensable; it means disablement of an employee to earn wages in the same kind of work, or work of similar nature that he was trained for or accustomed to perform, or any kind of work that a person of his mentality and attainment could do.
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Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho is the junior partner who heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0908866578./PN
