Grant of Increases in Monthly Income Benefits for Work-Related Permanent Disability and Death

January 30, 1983

LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 1286

APPROVING THE GRANT OF INCREASES IN MONTHLY INCOME BENEFITS FOR WORK-RELATED PERMANENT DISABILITY AND DEATH UNDER TITLE II, BOOK FOUR ON "EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION," LABOR CODE OF THE PHILIPPINES, AS AMENDED

WHEREAS, it is the policy of the State to upgrade the benefit structure for workers and employees as the need therefor arises, pursuant to Paragraph (e) of Article 177 of the Labor Code of the Philippine as amended, subject to approval by the President of the Philippines;

WHEREAS, sound management of the State Insurance Fund by the Administering Agencies of the Employees' Compensation Program, namely, the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System, has resulted in the accumulation of sufficient reserves to enable the Employees Compensation Commission to update and upgrade the benefit structure for covered employees, without requiring additional premium contributions from employers;

WHEREAS, pursuant to Resolution 2066 of the Employees Compensation Commission, dated September 2, 1982 the Commission has approved the grant of an additional TWENTY-PERCENT (20%) across-the-board increase in monthly income benefits to pensioners who suffer work-related permanent disabilities and to pensioners on account of work-related deaths of employees, in view of the readjustment of the benefit structure for pensioners for non-work related contingencies, which took effect on September 1, 1982, to help protect the spendable income of workers and pensioners against world-wide inflationary pressure; aisa dc

WHEREAS, computation of employees' compensation benefits under PD 626, as amended, is directly based on computation of benefits for non-employment-related contingencies, so much so that every new adjustment of benefits in the latter justifies and calls for a corresponding and simultaneous upgrading in employees' compensation benefits to maintain the parity in the grant of benefits for work-related contingencies; and

WHEREAS, in keeping with the spirit and intent of the law, ECC Resolution 2066 further provided for an automatic and simultaneous increase in monthly income benefits for service-related contingencies by fifteen percent (15%) for pensioners under the Social Security System and twenty percent (20%) for pensioners under the Government Service Insurance System for non-work-related contingencies;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law and the Constitution, do hereby approve and direct the Employees Compensation Commission and its Administering Agencies, namely, the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System, to grant an additional twenty percent (20%) across-the-board increase in monthly income benefits for work-related permanent disabilities and deaths of employees or pensioners, effective September 1, 1982; and further, that every time the SSS and GSIS increase the monthly income benefits for non-work-related contingencies, such increases in monthly income benefits shall be automatically and simultaneously applicable to the monthly income benefits for employment-related contingencies under PD 626, as amended, so as to maintain the fifteen percent (15%) and twenty percent (20%) benefit differentials for SSS and GSIS pensioners, respectively, as provided for by law, Provided, That the liquidity and stability of the State Insurance Fund shall not, in any manner, be impaired; and Provided, Finally, That no additional premium contributions shall be assessed upon employers.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 30th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Three.