Labor Law: Book IV; Title II; Chapter IX Records, Reports and Penal Provision (Arts. 211 - 215)

 Book IV

Health, Safety and Social Welfare

Title II

Employees’ Compensation and State Insurance Fund

Chapter IX

Records, Reports and Penal Provision

Arts. 211 - 215 

Q: For purposes of implementing the employees' compensation law, what records is an employer required to maintain?

Q: Is notification to the employer a prerequisite to approval of claims under the Fund?

Art. 211 [205]. Record of death or disability.

All employers shall keep a logbook to record chronologically the sickness, injury or death of their employees, setting forth therein their names, dates and places of the contingency, nature of the contingency and absences. Entries in the logbook shall be made within five days from notice or knowledge of the occurrence of the contingency. Within five days after entry in the logbook, the employer shall report to the System only those contingencies he deems to be work-connected.

All entries in the employer’s logbook shall be made by the employer or any of his authorized official after verification of the contingencies or the employees’ absences for a period of a day or more. Upon request by the System, the employer shall furnish the necessary certificate regarding information about any contingency appearing in the logbook, citing the entry number, page number and date. Such logbook shall be made available for inspection to the duly authorized representative of the System.

Should any employer fail to record in the logbook an actual sickness, injury or death of any of his employees within the period prescribed herein, give false information or withhold material information already in his possession, he shall be held liable for fifty percent of the lump sum equivalent of the income benefit to which the employee may be found to be entitled, the payment of which shall accrue to the State Insurance Fund.

In case of payment of benefits for any claim which is later determined to be fraudulent and the employer is found to be a party to the fraud, such employer shall reimburse the System the full amount of the compensation paid.

Art. 212 [206]. Notice of sickness, injury or death. 

Notice of sickness, injury or death shall be given to the employer by the employee or by his dependents or anybody on his behalf within five days from the occurrence of the contingency. No notice to the employer shall be required if the contingency is known to the employer or his agents or representatives.

Art. 213 [207]. Penal provisions.

The penal provisions of Republic Act Numbered Eleven Hundred Sixty-One, as amended, and Commonwealth Act Numbered One Hundred Eighty-Six, as amended, with regard to the funds as are thereunder being paid to, collected or disbursed by the System, shall be applicable to the collection, administration and disbursement of the Funds under this Title. The penal provisions on coverage shall also be applicable.

Any person who, for the purpose of securing entitlement to any benefit or payment under this Title, or the issuance of any certificate or document for any purpose connected with this Title, whether for him or for some other person, commits fraud, collusion, falsification, misrepresentation of facts or any other kind of anomaly, shall be punished with a fine of not less than five hundred pesos nor more than five thousand pesos and an imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than one year, at the discretion of the court.

If the act penalized by this Article is committed by any person who has been or is employed by the Commission or System, or a recidivist, the imprisonment shall not be less than one year; if committed by a lawyer, physician or other professional, he shall, in addition to the penalty prescribed herein, be disqualified from the practice of his profession; and if committed by any official, employee or personnel of the Commission, System or any government agency, he shall, in addition to the penalty prescribed herein, be dismissed with prejudice to re-employment in the government service.

Art. 214 [208]. Applicability. 

This Title shall apply only to injury, sickness, disability or death occurring on or after January 1, 1975.

Art. 215 [208-A]. Repeal.

All existing laws, Presidential Decrees and Letters of Instructions which are inconsistent with or contrary to this Decree, are hereby repealed: Provided, That in the case of the GSIS, conditions for entitlement to benefits shall be governed by the Labor Code, as amended: Provided, however, That the formulas for computation of benefits, as well as the contribution base, shall be those provided under Commonwealth Act Numbered One Hundred Eighty-Six, as amended by Presidential Decree No. 1146, plus twenty percent thereof. (As added by Section 9, Presidential Decree No. 1368 [May 1, 1978] and subsequently amended by Section 7, Presidential Decree No. 1641)

Notes:

• Under ECC Board Resolution No. 2127, issued on 5 August 1982, notice of injury, sickness or death of the employee need not be given to the employer in any of the following situations:
1. When the employee suffers the contingency within the employer's premises;
2. When the employee officially files an application for leave of absence by reason of the contingency from which he suffers;
3. When the employer provides medical services and/or medical supplies to the employee who suffers from the contingency; and
4. When the employer can be reasonably presumed to have had knowledge of the employee's contingency, in view of the following circumstances:
1. The employee was performing an official function for the employer when the contingency occurred;
2. The employee's contingency has been publicized through mass media outlets; or
3. The specific circumstances of the occurrence of the contingency have been such that the employer can be reasonably presumed to have readily known it soon thereafter; or
4. Any other circumstances that may give rise to a reasonable presumption that the employer has been aware of the contingency.

 Central Azucarera Don Pedro v. Workmen's  Compensation Commission, G.R. No. L-29670, October 9, 1987

• Nemesio Tanio worked for Central Azucarera Don Pedro (CENTRAL) as a laborer and later as an operator of a cane-unloading machine.
• He stopped working on February 9, 1960, due to illness, diagnosed as minimal pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB).
• Tanio opted to retire and received a gratuity payment of P400.00.
• Three years later, on October 8, 1963, Tanio filed for disability compensation and medical expenses with the Department of Labor.
• CENTRAL contested the claim, arguing it was barred due to Tanio's failure to file within the prescribed period and that minimal PTB wasn't compensable.

WoN delay or failure to notify the employer within the prescribed period bar a compensation claim. NO

That contention is without merit, there being no dispute that as soon as he exhibited the first symptoms of his ailment, which the CENTRAL’s. physician diagnosed as minimal PTB, Tanio was confined and treated at the CENTRAL’s expense at the latter’s hospital for at least three days. The employer’s act of extending and paying for medical assistance suffices for and obviates the necessity of giving him the notice required by law. Just as we have consistently ruled that compensation claims accruing under the Workmen’s Compensation Act and prior to the effectivity of the Labor Code of 1974 prescribe in ten years, so we have also held that delay or failure to give the employer notice of compensable illness or injury within the prescribed period does not bar a claim for compensation if it is shown that the latter, his agent or representative in fact knew of such injury or illness or that he suffered no damage by reason of such delay or lack of notice.