The Department of Labor and Employment on Tuesday announced that qualified pensioners of the Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) will start to receive their one-time P20,000 financial assistance starting this month.
In a news statement, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the one-time financial assistance will be released in batches to about 32,000 EC pensioners by the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the ECC‘s administering agencies for the private and public sector.
“The P20,000 financial assistance from the ECC for private sector EC [employee compensation] pensioners will be credited to their accounts starting this month of June,” said Bello. The labor chief chairs the ECC.
Earlier, DOLE said the ECC has set aside about P600 million to roll out the aid package meant to benefit both private and public sector workers.
ECC Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis said that qualified EC pensioners need not apply for the financial assistance as it will be processed in the same manner as the processing of their EC pensions.
“EC pensioners in the private sector with at least one month of permanent partial disability [PPD], permanent total disability [PTD], or survivorship pension from January 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, will benefit from the one-time financial assistance,” Banawis added.
On April 19, President Duterte signed Administrative Order No. 39, series of 2021, approving the grant of a one-time financial assistance of P20,000 to EC pensioners in both the public and the private sectors.
EC pensioners are persons with permanent partial disability (PPD) or permanent total disability (PTD) because of their work or their working environment. They can also be the beneficiaries of the employees who died due to work-related contingencies.
In case of the death of the eligible EC pensioner during the prescribed period of January 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, the one-time financial assistance will be released to his or her beneficiary.
“The EC pensioners have suffered work-related disability and the Covid-19 pandemic compounded their vulnerability as they deal with undue financial hardships,” Banawis said.
“We hope that the one-time financial assistance can ease the financial burdens of our EC pensioners during this trying time. Rest assured that ECC is tirelessly working to provide more assistance to our workers,” she assured.
The ECC is a government corporation attached to DOLE for policy coordination and guidance. It was created by Presidential Decree 626, as amended and as embodied in Title II of Book IV of the Labor Code of the Philippines. The ECC is mandated to provide meaningful and appropriate compensation to workers and their dependents in the event of work-related contingencies such as sickness, injury, disability, or death.
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