MANILA – The Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) has restored the three-year prescriptive period to file Employees’ Compensation (EC) claims.
Based on ECC Board Resolution 24-01-02 made public Tuesday, the prescriptive period for all EC claims applications with either the Social Security System (SSS) or the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has been reinstated effective Jan. 18 this year.
"Claimants are again given three years from the time the cause of action accrued to file their applications for EC claims with the SSS and GSIS," the ECC added.
The Commission noted that EC claims cover any work-related contingencies such as sickness, injury, or death.
Private sector workers may file their applications with the SSS, while GSIS are ready to accept applications from government employees.
“This means that the running of the period for the filing of claims for compensation due to work-related contingencies such as sickness, injury, or death, has resumed,” it said.
Under Presidential Decree 626, EC claimants are given three years from the time the cause of action accrued to file their applications for EC claims with the SSS and GSIS.
The law also said that in case of sickness, the counting of three years shall start from the last date of confinement, whether singular or multiple confinements. In case of accident and death, counting starts from the date of the accident or death.
The prescriptive period for the filing of EC claims was suspended when the country was placed under a state of public health emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic, in compliance with Proclamation 922 issued by former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2020.
The state of public health emergency was lifted under Proclamation No. 297 signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in July 2023.
ECC is an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment that provides benefits to workers in the event of work-related sickness or injury which resulted in disability or death. (PNA)
