Accidents can happen in the workplace. These accidents can cause a personal injury, which may cause an employee to rest for a few days or months until they are capable of nursing themselves back to health. If such employment caused personal injury or illness, is the employer going to pay compensation to the employee? There are many questions that linger in an employee's mind as some workers are not properly compensated. Act. No. 3428 prescribes the compensation, which will be received by employees for illness, personal injuries and even death if these are contracted in the performance of the workers' duties.
Sec. 2. Grounds for Compensation. — When any employee receives a personal injury from any accident due to and in the pursuance of the employment, or contracts any illness directly caused by such employment or the result of the nature of such employment, his employer shall pay compensation in the sums and to the persons hereinafter specified.
Sec. 3. Applicable to Government. — This Act shall also be applicable to the employees and laborers of the Insular Government and of the governments of the provinces, municipalities and all other political subdivisions of the Philippine Islands, employed in the industrial concerns of the Government and in public works.
Sec. 4. Injuries not Covered. — Compensation shall not be allowed for injuries caused (1) by the voluntary intent of the employee to inflict such injury upon himself or another person; (2) by drunkenness on the part of the laborer who had the accident; (3) by notorious negligence of the same.
Sec. 5. Exclusive Right to Compensation. — The right and remedies granted by this Act to an employee by reason of a personal injury entitling him to compensation shall exclude all other rights and remedies accruing to the employee, his personal representatives, dependents or nearest of kin against the employer under the Civil Code and other laws, because of said injury.
Employers contracting laborers in the Philippine Islands for work outside the same may stipulate with such laborers that the remedies prescribed by this Act shall apply exclusively to injuries received outside the Islands through accidents happening in and during the performance of the duties of the employment; and all service contracts made in the manner prescribed in this section shall be presumed to include such agreement.
Sec. 6. Liability of Third Parties. — In case an employee suffers an injury for which compensation is due under this Act by any other person besides his employer, it shall be optional with such injured employee either to claim compensation from his employer, under this Act, or sue such other person for damages, in accordance with law; and in case compensation is claimed and allowed in accordance with this Act, the employer who paid such compensation or was found liable to pay the same, shall succeed the injured employee to the right of recovering from such person what he paid: Provided, That in case the employer recovers from such third person damages in excess of those paid or allowed under this Act, such excess shall be delivered to the injured employee or any other person entitled thereto, after deduction of the expenses of the employer and the cost of the proceedings. The sum paid by the employer for compensation or the amount of compensation to which the employee or his dependents are entitled, shall not be admissible as evidence in any damage suit or action.
Sec. 7. Contract Prohibited. — Any contract, regulation, or device of any sort intended to exempt the employer from all or part of the liability created by this Act shall be null and void.
Sec. 8. Death Benefit. — If the injury received by the employee causes his death within six months from the date of such injury, the employer shall pay the compensation to the persons entitled thereto, and in case there should be none, he shall pay to the person representing the deceased employee the burial expenses, not to exceed one hundred pesos, and shall also pay to or for the following persons, in the order of priority and during the periods hereinafter set forth, a weekly compensation equivalent to the following percentages of the average weekly wages of the employee, as determined in section nineteen of this Act:
(a) To the dependent widow or widower, in case there are no dependent children, forty-five per centum.
(b) To the dependent widow or widower in case there are one or two dependent children, fifty per centum, and if there are three or more dependent children, sixty per centum.
(c) If there is no dependent widow or widower, but a dependent child or children, such child or children shall be paid thirty per centum, with ten per centum additional for each child in excess of two, up to a maximum of fifty per centum, which shall be distributed in equal shares among the children if there be more than one.
(d) If there are no dependent widow, widower, or children, but there is a dependent father or mother, forty per centum to the father or mother if totally dependent, or twenty-five per centum if partly dependent, and if both parents are dependent, each shall be paid one-half of such compensation. If there is no parent, but dependent grandparents, the same compensation shall be paid as to a father or mother.
(e) If there are no dependent widow, widower, child, parents, or grandparent, but there is a dependent grandchild, brother or sister, or two or more such, then twenty-five per centum shall be paid for one dependent and five per centum additional for each additional dependent, up to a maximum of forty per centum, which shall be distributed share and share alike among the dependents if there be more than one.
When several persons are entitled to compensation and there is disagreement concerning the share of the compensation each should receive, the Bureau of Labor shall act as referee and designate the share to be allotted to each dependent; but if the good offices of said Bureau do not meet with the approval of all parties concerned, the courts shall be competent to settle the matter in case an action is brought, and the employer may turn the money over to the court subject to disposal by the same. In case the laborer or employee who had the accident dies and there is no surviving spouse and the dependents or some of them are minors and have no guardian appointed by a court, the employer or concern compelled to pay compensation under this Act shall deposit the money represented by such compensation with the local justice of the peace court if outside the City of Manila, and with the municipal court in said city, and the officers thereof shall order payment to the minors through the municipal treasurer and the city treasurer, as the case may be, without necessity of appointing a guardian.
Sec. 9. Dependents of the Injured Person. — The following persons, and no others, shall be considered as dependents and entitled to compensation under the provisions of this Act:
A son or daughter, if under eighteen years of age or incapable of supporting him or herself, and unmarried, whether actually dependent on the deceased or not;
The widow, only if she was living with the deceased or was actually dependent upon him, totally or partly;
The widower, only if incapable of supporting himself and actually dependent, totally or partly, upon the deceased on the date of the accident;
A parent of grandparent, only if totally or partly dependent upon the deceased;
A grandchild or brother or sister, only if less than eighteen years of age or incapable of supporting him or herself, and totally dependent upon the deceased. The relation of dependency must exist at the time of the injury.
A foreigner shall not be considered as a dependent within the meaning of this Act if he is not at the time a resident of the Philippine Islands, and any dependent foreigner leaving the Islands shall automatically forfeit all right to any benefit under this Act.
Sec. 10. Periods of Compensation. — The compensation provided for by this Act shall be payable during the following periods:
To a widow, until her death or remarriage; but in no case for more than two hundred and eight weeks;
To a widower, during his incapacity; but in no case for more than two hundred and eight weeks;
To a son or daughter, until he or she has completed eighteen years of age; but in case a son is unable to support himself and is not married, while such incapacity lasts, but in no case for more than two hundred and eight weeks in all;
To a parent or grandparent during the continuance of their actual condition of dependency; but in no case for more than two hundred and eight weeks;
To a grandchild, brother, or sister, during their condition of dependency, as defined in section nine hereof; but in no case for more than two hundred and eight weeks;
Upon the expiration of the compensation under this section to any person, to compensation payable to the remaining persons entitled to compensation because the entire period during which they must be paid compensation has not expired, shall be that which such persons would receive if they alone had been entitled to compensation at the time the deceased died.
