ECC allows online filing for infected workers

MANILA, Philippines — Workers who got infected with COVID due to work or working conditions may now file online their application for financial assistance from the Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) at the website https://cashassistance.ecc.gov.ph.

ECC executive director Stella Banawis said EC cash assistance applicants will have to scan their documentary requirements and upload them to the Cash Assistance Digital System (ECCADS).

The ECCADS is available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and will initially accommodate only 100 applications per day.

The ECC advises applicants to ensure the completeness and correctness of documents to be uploaded before logging in to the system. Once the application is successfully submitted, applicants must take note of their control number to monitor the progress of their online application.

“ECCADS helps ensure the safety of our claimants and employees against COVID-19. Currently, we are overwhelmed with Cash Assistance applications filed through our ECCADS that is why we are asking for your understanding and patience,” she added.

She also assured the public that ECC is exerting all efforts to provide immediate assistance and that the ECC resumed Cash Assistance online application last Oct. 11.

The EC Program provides compensation to workers in the event of work-connected sickness or injuries resulting in disability or death. Claims may be filed at the SSS for the private sector and the GSIS for the public sector.

Social protection

As chair of the International Labor Organization (ILO) government group, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III was asked to push for social protection for more workers.

ILO director-general Guy Ryder told Bello that the government group will play an important role in ensuring that governments worldwide provide social protection to their workers.

“From temporary amelioration, there is a need for a more systemic, permanent social protection,” Ryder told Bello.

According to Ryder, 53 percent of the world’s workforce does not enjoy social protection. Based on ILO data, over four billion people worldwide remain entirely unprotected.

The ILO is pushing for social protection including access to health care and income security, unemployment, sickness, disability, work injury, maternity or loss of the main income earner.

Ryder said Bello, current head of the government group, will have a crucial role in adopting measures to address global unemployment, which stood at 125 million.

Bello previously vowed to push for equal representation of big and small member-states in the ILO policymaking body.

At a meeting with Swiss Ambassador Valerie Berset Bircher and Essah Aniefiok Etim of Nigeria at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Bello gave assurance that the democratization of the ILO’s governing body is a priority agenda of the Philippines’ chairmanship of the government group.