02-23-06,10:00am
A work accident or work related illness might shorten the working life of any worker. How does the Cuban Social Security System afford its workers protection? Is a worker left uncovered if he or she has not worked a set number of hours?
I answered these two questions coming from a visitor to Cuba and then said I would go into more detail.
When a worker cannot fulfill a labor activity due to disability, he or she is entitled to receive disability pay and free healthcare, including rehabilitation services.
Law 24 of the Social Security Act refers to three degrees of disability: partial, full and severe disability. Which category a worker falls under is decided by the Medical Labor Report Commission, part of the National Healthcare System.
Benefits for full disability arise when a worker demonstrates a decrease of her physical or mental capacity or both, which prevents her from working. At the same time, it is also applied when a worker’s capacity for work reduces to such an extent that it impedes his ability to regularly attend to his job and support himself economically.
In the case of partial disability, a payment is granted when the worker shows a decrease of her physical or mental capacity or both that impedes her work but allows her to work in another area receiving a smaller wage or, in exceptional cases, to stay at the same job but with reduced hours.
In this case a disability payment is granted, calculated according to the time worked and the cause of the illness or accident, in addition to the wage from the new posting or reduced work schedule.
A worker who receives the status of severe disability, as a consequence of a work-related accident or illness and needs another people’s constant support due to their high degree of disability, will receive an increase in their disability payments.
In this way, Cuba acts in accordance to Article 54 of Part 9 of the Invalidity Benefit, contained in the International Labour Organization’s C102 Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, which expresses that: “The contingency covered shall include inability to engage in any gainful activity, to an extent prescribed, which inability is likely to be permanent or persists after the exhaustion of sickness benefit.”
