A member of the House Committee on Local Government is pushing for a measure mandating the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to include government workers’ accident outside working area and nonworking hours to its coverage.
House Bill 5923, authored by Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Evelio R. Leonardia of Bacolod, seeks to amend the GSIS Act of 1997.
Under the measure, the government shall pay for a member’s confinement for more than three days in a hospital or elsewhere.
The measure requires that in no case shall the daily hospitalization benefit be paid longer than 120 days in one calendar year, and any unused portion of the 120 days of sickness benefit granted be carried forward and added to the total number of compensable days allowable in the subsequent year.
The daily hospitalization benefit shall not be paid for more than 240 days on account of the same confinement, the bill said.
It said the employee member shall notify his employer of the fact of his injury within five calendar days after the start of his confinement.
The measure said the first day of sickness shall start the compensable confinement, and the payment shall be promptly made by the employer every regular payday or on the 15th and last day of each month.
In filing the bill, Leonardia said in the course of working every day, it is inevitable that accidents may sometime happen in the work premises during working hours, saying it is unavoidable that accidents may also happen during nonworking hours outside of work premises.
Leonardia, citing the Constitution, said the State shall adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development, which shall endeavor to make essential goods, health and other social services available to all the people at affordable cost.
“It is so disheartening to know that the employer-government, who should provide full protection to maintain the health of its employees, does not cover them on nonworking hours outside their work premises,” Leonardia said.