Section 1. Employees Included. — This Act shall be applicable
to all industrial employees hereinafter specified.
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.
Sec. 11. Scope of Certain Words. — The words
"son," "daughter," or "children," as used in this Act, shall include
stepchildren, adopted children, and illegitimate children acknowledged
before the injury was contracted; but they shall not include married
persons, unless the same be dependents, for any reason provided for in
law. The word "brother" or "sister", includes stepbrothers or
stepsisters, half brothers or half sisters, and brothers or sisters by
adoption; but it does not include married brothers or married sisters,
unless the same are dependents for any reason provided for in law. The
words "grandson," "granddaughter," or "grandchild" include children of
adopted children and children of stepchildren; but they do not include
stepchildren of children, nor stepchildren of stepchildren, nor
stepchildren of adopted children, nor married grandchildren, unless the
same be dependents in accordance with the law. The word "parents"
includes stepfathers and stepmothers and parents by adoption. The words
"grandfather," "grandmother" or "grandparents" include the parents of
parents by adoption; but they do not include parents of step-parents,
step-parents of parents, nor step-parents of step-parents.
Sec. 12. Sundry Provisions Regarding Death
Benefits. — In computing death benefits, the average weekly wages of
the deceased employee shall not be reckoned at more than thirty pesos
nor less than four pesos; but the total weekly compensation shall not
in any case exceed the average weekly wages computed in accordance with
section nineteen of this Act, nor shall the compensation paid in any
case exceed in its aggregate the sum of three thousand pesos.
The bona fide payment of a death compensation by an employer to a
dependent entitled thereto in the second place after another dependent
or dependents shall protect and exonerate the employer, unless and
until the dependent or dependents having priority right shall notify
him of his or their claim. In case an employer is doubtful regarding
rights or rival claimants, he may apply to the Bureau of Labor which,
acting as referee, shall determined the persons who under this Act are
entitled to compensation. If the decision of the Bureau of Labor in
this case is not satisfactory to any of the claimants, it shall be
incumbent upon the competent court to decide the matter, on the
petition of an interested party.
In the event of death occurring after a period of total or partial
disability, the period of disability shall be deducted from the
respective total periods established in section ten of this Act.
The compensation of a demented person shall be paid to the guardian of
such person.
Sec. 13. Medical Attendance. — Immediately after
an employee has suffered an injury and during the subsequent period of
disability, the employer shall provide the employee with such medical,
surgical, and hospital services and supplies as the nature of the
injury may require.
The pecuniary liability of the employer for the necessary medical,
surgical, and hospital services and supplies shall be limited to the
amount ordinarily paid in the community for such treatment of an
injured person of the same standard of living if the treatment had to
be paid for by the injured person himself.
In case the employer cannot furnish medical, surgical, and hospital
services and supplies promptly, the injured employee may acquire the
same at the expense of the employer.
If, in case of litigation, it is shown before a competent court that
the injured employee voluntarily refused to accept the services of a
competent physician or surgeon or voluntarily rejected the medical,
surgical, and hospital services and supplies provided by the employer,
or voluntarily obstructed the physician or surgeon or the medical,
surgical or hospital services, such refusal on the part of the employee
shall be construed as a waiver of all or part of his right to the
medical, surgical, and hospital services paid for by the employer, and
in this case the employer shall be liable only for the injury or for
the disability of any nature that would have ensued if the injured man
had accepted the medical, surgical, and hospital services and supplies
tendered by the employer: Provided, however, That the refusal as well
as the kind of disability that would have been the result of the injury
if the injured person had accepted such services, shall be set forth in
an affidavit made within twenty-four hours after the accident by
physician called to attend to the injured person.
Sec. 14. Total Disability. — In case the injury
causes total disability for labor, the employer, during such disability
but exclusive of the first seven days, shall pay to the injured
employee a weekly compensation equivalent to sixty per centum of his
average weekly wages; but not more than eighteen pesos nor less than
four pesos per week, except in the case provided for in the next
following paragraph. Such weekly payments shall in no case continue
after the disability has ceased, nor shall they extend over more than
two hundred and eight weeks, nor shall the aggregate sum paid as
compensation exceed in any case three thousand pesos. But no award of
permanent disability shall take effect until after two weeks have
elapsed from the date of the injury.
In the case of an employee whose average weekly wages are less than
four pesos per week, the weekly compensation shall be the entire amount
of such average weekly wages; but if the disability is permanent, the
compensation shall be four pesos in such cases. In the event that the
total disability begins after a period of partial disability, the
latter shall be deducted from said total period of two hundred and
eight weeks.
Sec. 15. Total and Permanent Disability. — The
disability shall be considered total and permanent if it is the result
of the following injuries:
(a) The total and permanent loss of the sight of both
eyes;
(b) The loss of both feet at or above the ankle;
(c) The loss of both hands at or above the wrist;
(d) The loss of one hand and one foot;
(e) An injury to the spine resulting in complete and
permanent paralysis of both legs or both arms or one leg and one arm;
(f) An injury to the brain resulting in incurable
imbecility or insanity.
The enumeration above made shall not be considered as exclusive.
Sec. 16. Partial Disability. — In case the injury
causes partial disability for labor, the employer, during such
disability and except as hereinafter provided, shall pay to the injured
employee for a period of two hundred and eight weeks, beginning with
the first day of disability, a weekly compensation equal to fifty per
centum of the difference between his average weekly wages before the
accident and the weekly wages which he could probably earn thereafter;
but not more than ten pesos per week. The weekly payments shall not in
any case continue after the disability has ceased, and in case partial
disability sets in after a period of total disability, such period of
total disability shall be deducted from the total period of two hundred
and eight weeks and the amount of the compensation paid shall not in
any case be in excess of the total sum of three thousand pesos. No
award for disability shall be made before a lapse of two weeks counted
from the date of the injury.
Sec. 17. Permanent Partial Disability. — In the
case of disability which is partial in its nature but permanent in its
duration, the compensation shall be fifty per centum of the average
weekly wages and shall be paid to the employee for the periods
designated in the following schedule:
For the loss of the thumb, forty weeks;
For the loss of the first finger, commonly called the index finger,
thirty weeks;
For the loss of the second finger, twenty-five weeks;
For the loss of the third finger, twenty weeks;
For the loss of the fourth finger, commonly called the little finger,
ten weeks;
The loss of the first joint of the thumb or any other finger shall be
considered as equal to the loss of one-half of the thumb or finger and
the compensation shall be one-half of the compensation above specified
for the loss of the thumb or finger.
The loss of more than one joint of the thumb or of a finger shall be
considered as loss of the entire thumb or finger: Provided, however,
That the sum paid for the loss of more than one finger shall in no case
exceed the sum provided for in this list for the loss of a hand.
For the loss of a big toe, twenty-five weeks;
For the loss of a toe other than the big toe, ten weeks;
The loss of the first joint of any toe shall be considered as equal to
the loss of half the toe and the compensation shall be one-half of the
sum specified for the loss of the toe. The loss of more than one joint
of any toe shall be considered as equal to the loss of the entire toe.
For the loss of a hand, one hundred and sixty weeks;
For the loss of an arm, two hundred and eight weeks;
For the loss of a foot, one hundred and thirty weeks;
For the loss of a leg, one hundred and ninety weeks;
For the loss of an eye, eighty-four weeks;
For the complete and permanent loss of the sense of hearing on both
ears, two hundred and eight weeks. For the complete and permanent loss
of sense of hearing on one ear, forty weeks. For the loss of both ears,
eighty-four weeks. For the loss of one ear, forty weeks.
The permanent loss of the use of a hand, an arm, a foot, a leg, an eye,
a thumb, a finger, a toe or a joint shall be considered as equivalent
to and be compensated at the same rate as the loss of a hand, arm,
foot, leg, eye, thumb, finger, toe or joint.
In cases of permanent partial disability due to the injury of any of
the members specified in this scheduled, less than the total loss of
the member or less than the total loss of its use, and in case the
disability is not otherwise compensated in this schedule, the
compensation shall be paid in the proportion prescribed in this
schedule for the total loss of the member or the total loss of the use
thereof, and for the period of time hereinafter specified. The
proportion which the permanent partial disability bears to the total
disability of the same member, as specified in the schedule, shall be
determined, and the compensation above prescribed shall be paid for a
portion of the period above established for the total loss of the
member or for the total loss of the use thereof, in accordance with the
proportion which the disability bears to the total disability of the
member.
Sec. 18. Amputation. — Amputation between elbow
and wrist shall be considered as equivalent to the loss of a hand.
Amputation between knee and ankle shall be considered as a loss of a
foot. Amputation at or above the elbow shall be considered as
equivalent to the loss of an arm. Amputation at or above the knee shall
be considered as equivalent to the loss of a leg.
Compensation for the injuries above specified shall exclude all other
compensation except the benefits provided for in sections thirteen,
fourteen, and fifteen.
In case of an injury producing a serious disfigurement of the face or
head, the proper court may, at the request of an interested party,
determine and award such compensation as may seem fair and proper in
view of the nature of the disfigurement, but which shall not exceed
three thousand pesos.
In all other cases of this kind of disability, the compensation shall
be fifty per centum of the difference between the average weekly wages
of the injured person and his subsequent earning capacity in the same
or some other employment, payable while the partial disability lasts;
but subject to reconsideration of the degree or impairment by a
competent court, at the request of an interested party; Provided,
however, That the weekly payments shall in no case be continued for a
period longer than two hundred and eight weeks.
The total compensation prescribed in this and the next preceding
section and the total compensation prescribed in sections fourteen and
fifteen of this Act shall, together, not exceed the sum of three
thousand pesos.
Sec. 19. Computation of Wages. — The average
weekly wages shall be computed in such manner that it shall be the best
computation that can be made of the weekly earnings of the laborer
during the twelve weeks next preceding his injury; Provided, That if,
on account of the shortness of the time during which the laborer was so
employed or of the cessation of the employment, it is impracticable to
compute the remuneration, consideration may be had of the average
weekly wages earned during the last twelve months preceding the injury
by a person employed in the same grade and same work by the employer of
the injured laborer, or if there is no person so employed, of the
average weekly wages earned by a person employed in the same grade in
the same kind of employment in the same district or locality.
Sec. 20. Voluntary Payments. — Payments made by
the employer or his insurer to the injured laborer during the period of
his disability or to his dependents, which under the provisions hereof
were not due or payable when they were made, shall, upon being duly
established, by agreement between the parties concerned, a certified
copy of which shall be sent to the Bureau of Labor, or subject to the
decision of the court in case of litigation, be deducted from the sum
to be paid as compensation: Provided, That in case of disability, the
deduction shall be made by reducing the period of time during which the
compensation is to be paid, and not by reducing the weekly payment to
be made in accordance with sections fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and
seventeen of this Act.
Sec. 21. Periodical Payments. — Upon agreement by
the parties concerned, or through the good offices of the Bureau of
Labor, or by decision of the courts in case of litigation, the
compensation may be paid monthly or semimonthly instead of weekly, as
may be most convenient to the employer and the laborer.
Sec. 22. Payments in a Lump Sum. — Whenever the
parties consider it most advantageous and convenient, the liability of
the employer as regards the compensation may be discharged totally or
in part by payment in a lump sum or sums: Provided, however, That any
agreement or contract made for this purpose between the parties shall
not be valid unless it be in the form of a public document acknowledged
before the justice of the peace of the locality and attested by two
witnesses, one of whom shall be the municipal treasurer or the person
acting in his stead if the accident occurred outside the City of
Manila; and if in the City of Manila, before a duly authorized notary
public, attested likewise by two witnesses, one of whom shall be the
Director of the Bureau of Labor or his representative. Before the
acknowledgment of the instrument, the justice of the peace or notary
public, as the case may be, shall fully inform the injured laborer or
dependent persons or persons executing the instrument in his stead, of
all their rights and privileges under this Act, reading and translating
to them into the vernacular dialect they know, in case they do not
understand English or Spanish, the provisions of this Act establishing
the amounts and periods of compensation and other privileges to which
they are entitled by reason of the accident, and shall certify in the
acknowledgment clause that all these requisites have been complied
with. The expense of the acknowledgment of the contract shall be borne
by the employer. The justice of the peace or notary public, as the case
may be, shall forward a certified copy of the contract to the Bureau of
Labor in Manila, for file.
Any failure on the part of the employer to comply with his obligation
to pay any of the sums due to the injured laborer or his dependents in
accordance with this Act, shall entitle the beneficiary to claim the
entire balance of the compensation at one time.
Sec. 23. Medical Examination. — After receiving an
injury and during the period of his disability, the laborer shall at
reasonable times and places submit to examination by a duly qualified
physician or surgeon designated and paid by the employer. The laborer
shall be entitled to have a physician or surgeon designated and paid by
himself at such examination; but this right shall not construed as
denying to the physician or surgeon of the employer the right to visit
the injured laborer at any reasonable time and under any reasonable
conditions during his total disability. In case a laborer refuses to
submit to, or does in any manner obstruct the examination mentioned,
his right to proceed under this Act shall be suspended until such
refusal or obstruction shall cease, and no compensation shall be
payable for the entire time of such obstruction.
Sec. 24. Notice of the Injury and Claim for
Compensation. — No compensation proceeding under this Act shall prosper
unless the employer has been given notice of the injury as soon as
possible after the same was received and unless a claim for
compensation was made not later than two months after the date of the
injury, or in case of death, not later than three months after death,
regardless of whether or not compensation was claimed by the employee
himself. Such notice may be given and such claim made by any person
considering himself entitled to the compensation or by any other person
in his behalf. In case medical, surgical, and hospital services and
supplies have been furnish voluntarily by the employer, notice of the
injury within the time limit above mentioned shall not be necessary,
and if the employer has voluntarily made the compensation payments, the
claim for compensation to be made within the time limits above
established shall no longer be necessary.
Sec. 25. Form of Notice and Claim. — The notice
and claim shall be in writing and the notice shall contain the name and
address of the employee and shall establish in plain and clear language
the time, place, nature, and cause of the injury and shall be signed by
the employee or any other person in his behalf, or in case of his
death, by a person or persons dependent upon him, or by any other
person in their behalf. The notice may include the claim.
Sec. 26. Delivery of Notice and Claim. — The
notice provided for in this Act shall be served on the employer, or in
case the employer is a company, on any of the partners. If the employer
is a corporation, the notice may be served on any agent of the
corporation on whom it can be served or on any officer of the
corporation or any agent in charge of its business at the place where
the injury was received. The notice shall be served by personal
delivery or by sending it by registered letter addressed to the
employer at his last known residence or at his place of business. The
foregoing provisions shall be applicable to the procedure in connection
with the claim.
Sec. 27. Sufficient Notice. — Any notice given in
accordance with the provisions of section twenty-five of this Act shall
not be considered as invalid or insufficient by reason of any
incorrectness in the statement of time, place, nature or cause of the
injury or of anything else, unless it be shown that the employer has
been actually misinformed respecting the injury. Failure to or delay in
giving notice shall not be a bar to the proceeding herein provided for,
if it is shown that the employer, his agent or representative had
acknowledge of the accident or that the employer did not suffer by such
delay or failure.
Sec. 28. Limitation as Regards Minors and Insane
Persons. — None of the time limits provided for in this Act shall apply
to a person mentally incapacitated or to a dependent minor so long as
he has no guardian or next friend.
Sec. 29. Agreement on Compensation. — In case the
employer and the injured laborer or the dependent or dependents
entitled to compensation arrive at an agreement concerning the
compensation provided for by this Act, such agreement, in order to be
valid, shall be in the form of a public instrument acknowledged before
the justice of the peace of the locality and attested by two witnesses,
one of whom shall be the municipal treasurer or the person acting in
his stead if the accident occurred outside the City of Manila; and in
the City of Manila before a duly authorized notary public, attested
likewise by two witnesses one of whom shall be the Director of the
Bureau of Labor or his representative. Before receiving the
acknowledgment of the instrument, the justice of the peace or notary
public, as the case may be, shall fully inform the injured laborer or
dependent or dependents executing the instrument in his stead, of all
their rights and privileges under this Act, reading and translating to
them into the vernacular dialect they know, in case they do not
understand English or Spanish, the provisions of this Act establishing
the amounts and periods of compensation and other privileges to which
they are entitled by reason of the accident, and shall certify in the
acknowledgment clause that all these requisites have been complied
with. The expense of the acknowledgment of the contract shall be borne
by the employer. The justice of the peace or notary public, as the case
may be, shall forward a certified copy of the contract to the Bureau of
Labor in Manila, for file: Provided, however, That the employer shall
be exempt from all liability under this Act as soon as the compensation
has been paid in accordance with this section, saving the provisions of
section six of this Act.
Sec. 30. Insurance of Payment of Compensation. —
Employers may guarantee the payment of compensation under this Act to
their employees and laborers by insuring the same in an insurance
company. However, the premiums on the policy shall be paid in their
entirety by the employer and any contract providing for deductions from
the wages of the employee or laborer shall be null and void.
Sec. 31. Intervention of the Bureau of Labor. — At
the request of an interested party, the Bureau of Labor shall act as
referee in all claims and disagreement arising under this Act. In case
its efforts in this respect fail, it shall take the necessary steps to
have the claim submitted to the proper courts, and it may require the
provincial fiscals to represent in such proceedings the injured laborer
or employee or person or persons entitled to compensation in their
respective provinces, except where the claim is against the government
or any political subdivision of the same, in which case the court, at
the request of the laborer or employee, shall designate an attorney to
act as his counsel free of charge. But nothing contained in this
section shall be construed to prevent the injured laborer or person or
persons entitled to compensation to take the case directly into court,
without previous intervention by the Bureau of Labor.
Sec. 32. Priority of Action for Compensation. —
All actions for compensation brought in justice of the peace courts and
courts of first instance under this Act shall have priority in the
dockets of said courts over all other cases, except habeas corpus
proceedings, election contests, and criminal cases in which the accused
are not at liberty on bail. The defendant in court in compensation
proceedings brought under the provisions of this Act shall reply to the
complaint within the time established by law and the rules of the
courts of justice, after being summoned.
Sec. 33. Injuries Receive Outside the Islands. —
When a laborer contracted in the Philippine Islands receives a personal
injury through an accident occurring in and during his employment, he
shall be entitled to compensation under the law of the Islands, though
the injury was received outside the same.
When a laborer contracted outside the Philippine Islands is injured
while engaged in the business of his employer and is entitle to the
compensation for such injury under the law of the territory or country
where he was contracted, he may recover from his employer in these
Islands if his rights are such that they can be reasonably determined
and granted by the courts.
Sec. 34. Priority of Compensation. — All rights to
compensation provided for by this Act shall have the same priority over
other credits against the employer that the law gives to due and unpaid
wages.
Sec. 35. Assignment of Rights. — No claim for
compensation under this Act is transferable, and all compensations or
rights to compensation shall be exempt from creditor's claims.
Sec. 36. Cooperation of Fiscals. — In connection
with his duties, the Director of Labor may, if necessary, require the
cooperation of the provincial fiscal of any province in order to secure
proper compliance with this Act or any part thereof.
Sec. 37. Notice of Accidents by Employees. — Each
employer shall hereafter keep a record of all injuries, whether fatal
or not, received by his employees in the course of their employment,
when the same come to his knowledge or attention. As soon as possible
after the occurrence of an injury resulting in absence from work for a
day or more, the employer shall give written notice thereof to the
Bureau of Labor on blank forms especially prepared by said Bureau, for
which the employer shall make requisition in due time, or in cases of
necessity or emergency, on any other paper, containing the information
hereinafter prescribed.
The notices shall set forth the style and nature of the business of the
employer, the location of the establishment, the name, age, sex, wages,
and occupation of the injured employee, the date and hour of the
accident resulting in the injury, the nature and cause of the injury,
and such other information as may be required by the Bureau of Labor.
Any employer refusing or neglecting to give the notice required by this
section shall be punished by a fine of not more than twenty-five pesos
for each offense.
Not later than sixty days after the termination of the disability of
the injured employee, the employer or other person liable for the
payment of the compensation provided for in this Act shall file with
the Bureau of Labor a statement of the total payments made or to be
made for compensation and for medical services to the injured person.
Sec. 38. Interisland Trade. — This Act shall cover
the liability of the employers towards employees engaged in the
interisland trade, and also in the foreign trade when such is
permissible under the laws of the United States and the Philippine
Islands.
Sec. 39. Definition of Various Words. — In this
Act, unless the context indicates otherwise, the definition of various
words used therein shall be as follows:
(a) "Employer" comprises every association of
persons, incorporated or not, public or private, and the legal
representative of the deceased employer. It comprises the owner or
lessee of a factory or establishment or any other person who is
virtually the owner or manager of the business carried on in the
establishment but who, for the reason that there is an independent
contractor in the same, or for any other reason, is not the direct
employer of the laborers employed there.
(b) "Laborer" is used as a synonym of "employee" and
means every person who has entered the employment of, or works under a
service or apprenticeship contract for an employer. It does not include
a person whose employment is purely casual or is not for the purposes
of the occupation or business of the employer, or whose remuneration
paid by any employer, exclusive of overtime pay, is in excess of
forty-two pesos a week. Any reference to a laborer injured shall, in
case he dies, include a reference to the persons dependent on him, as
defined in this Act, if the context so requires, or, if the employee is
a minor or incapacitated, to his guardian or nearest of kin.
(c) "Injure" or "personal injuries" includes death
produced by the injury within six months.
(d) "Industrial employment" in case of private
employers includes all employment or work at a trade, occupation or
profession exercised by an employer for the purpose of gain, the gross
income of which in the year immediately preceding the one during which
the accident occurred was not less than forty thousand pesos, except
agriculture, charitable institutions, and domestic service.
(e) "Public employment" signifies employment in the
service of the Insular Government or the government of any province,
municipality or other political subdivision of the Islands. It does not
include employment as public officer elected by the popular vote nor
persons paid more than eight hundred pesos per annum.
(f) "Partial disability," diminished capacity for
securing employment due to disfigurement produced by an injury can be
considered as partial disability.
(g) "Wages" includes the commercial value of the
board and lodging, subsistence, fuel and other things that can be
reckoned in money which the employee receives from the employer as part
of his compensation.
"Wages" does not include sums paid by the employer to the employee to
cover special expenses due him on account of the nature of his
employment.
(h) A word in the singular shall also apply to the
plural, and vice versa, and one in the masculine gender shall also
apply to the feminine.
Sec. 40. Penalty for Misrepresentation. — Any
person who, with the intent of obtaining any benefit or payment under
the provisions of this Act, voluntarily makes for himself or for the
benefit of another any false statement or representation, shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more
than two hundred pesos and by imprisonment in case of insolvency.
Sec. 41. Title of This Act. — This Act shall be
known as "Workmen's Compensation Act."
Sec. 42. Law Applicable to Small Industries. — All
claims for accidents occurring in a trade, occupation, or profession
exercised by an employer for the purpose of gain, the gross income of
which during the year next preceding the one in which the accident
occurred was less than forty thousand pesos, shall be governed by the
provisions of Act Numbered Eighteen hundred and seventy-four and its
amendments.
Sec. 43. Repealing Clause. — All acts or parts of
acts inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.
Sec. 44. This Act shall take effect six months
after its approval.
Effective, December 10, 1927.
NOTE. — The foregoing Act became a law on December 10, 1927, the action
of the Legislature alone and by virtue of the provision of the
Philippine Organic Law. In view of section 44 of the said Act, it will
become effective after six months or on June 10, 1928
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