BACOLOD CITY — The Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) is strengthening its efforts to raise awareness on its programs by reaching out to employers, human resource and union officers in southern Negros.
As part of its two-day activities in Negros Occidental, the ECC is holding an advocacy seminar for more than 200 participants from both the public and the private sectors in Kabankalan City on Tuesday.
Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis said in a press briefing here on Monday that the biggest challenge for ECC, an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment, is raising awareness on their programs and benefits that have improved and increased in the past year.
“We take this opportunity to inform the media about the Employees’ Compensation Program (ECP) as the latest ECC policies and increases as they help us increase awareness on the ECP,” said Zipagan-Banawis.
The ECP provides a package of benefits for public and private sector employees and their dependents in the event of work-connected contingencies such as sickness, injury, disability or death.
Zipagan-Banawis said the latest ECC policies and increases in benefits are provided under Executive Order (EO) No. 54.
Under the new EO, the ECC grants a PHP1,500 across-the-board increase in monthly pension for all permanent disability pensioners and qualified private sector beneficiaries starting January 2017.
From January to September 2018, the ECC has paid 946 sickness and medical benefit claims in Western Visayas.
In 2017, there were a total of 1,071 claimants in the region.
Through the ECP Advocacy Seminar, the ECC informs employees of their rights, benefits and privileges, and also the employers, their responsibilities under the ECP.
Deputy Executive Director Jonathan Villasoto said that during the seminars, they discuss the three components of the ECP, which includes prevention, compensation and rehabilitation services.
These components play a major role in effectively and efficiently delivering a comprehensive package of benefits and services to workers who suffer from work-connected sickness, injury or death.
Villasoto said they will also highlight the recent program reforms of the ECC anchored on the “3Es” — Equalize, Enhance and Expand strategy. (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)
