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Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 [Schedule I amended in 1980] (No. 121) - Ecuador (RATIFICATION: 1978)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report. The Committee trusts that in its next report the Government will be in a position to supply information on the measures adopted to resolve the following points raised in previous comments:

Article 8 of the Convention. In its report, the Government indicates that a commitment has been given to begin the process to amend the rules and internal provisions of the Equadorian Social Security Institute (ESSI) which make it impossible for the moment to apply the double-list system. The Committee recalls that in its previous comments it raised the following points:

(a) Under section 5 of the General Regulations on Employment Injury Insurance, it is necessary to prove, in all cases, the causal relationship between work and the disease, whereas the double-list system used in Schedule 1 to the Convention is intended to establish a presumption in favour of the worker as regards the occupational origin of the disease, thus exempting him or her from the burden of proof; the text of section 5 of the Regulations should therefore be completed in this sense.

(b) The statement in section 5 of the 1990 Regulations concerning work involving exposure to the risk of contracting anthrax infection (bacillus anthrax - No. 27, section 4) should be completed so as to indicate the activities giving rise to the presumptions of the occupational origin of this disease, as they appear in the right hand column of item 15 of Schedule 1 to the Convention.

(c) No. 19, section 4, of the 1990 Regulations should be amended to read as follows: "Chloride derivatives of hydrocarbons ...".

The Committee trusts that these amendments will be made to current legislation as soon as possible in order to ensure conformity of national legislation and practices with the Convention.

Article 9, paragraphs 1 and 2. The Government indicates that if workers have not paid the six monthly contributions required in the General Regulations on Employment Injury Insurance (sections 12 and 19), the provision in section 14 is applied, namely that acute occupational diseases are considered to be occupational accidents and therefore the insured person has the right to both medical assistance and financial benefits. On this matter, the Committee again points out that sections 12 and 19 of the General Regulations on Employment Injury Insurance of 1990 which grant benefits for occupational diseases only to insured persons who have paid at least six monthly contributions, are not in conformity with the Convention which provides that eligibility for benefits - both medical and cash - in cases of occupational diseases may not be made subject to the payment of contributions. Consequently, the Committee hopes that in its next report the Government will be in a position to indicate the measures adopted to amend section 12 of the General Regulations on Employment Injury Insurance so that workers who are affected by acute or chronic occupational diseases are entitled to the benefits provided in the Convention, regardless of the period during which contributions have been made.

Articles 13, 14 and 18 (in conjunction with Articles 19 and 20) (amount of periodical benefits paid in the event of temporary incapacity, permanent incapacity and also the death of the family breadwinner). The Committee notes that the Government is still unable to determine which of Articles 19 or 20 it intends to have recourse and that the report does not contain the information requested in the report form that is needed to determine whether the amount of the benefits payable to standard beneficiaries in cases of temporary incapacity, permanent incapacity or death, reaches the level set out by the Convention. The Government refers to the possibility of requesting technical assistance from the ILO to resolve this matter. The Committee trusts that this technical assistance will result in ensuring that the level of benefits provided under sections 32 to 35 of the 1990 Regulations meets the levels of benefits required by the Convention.

Article 21. The Government indicates in its report that the ESSI revises all pensions, annually making increases which compensate to some degree for monetary inflation. Similarly, the Government has added a statistical table on payments made by the ESSI at national level for pensions for invalidity, old age, death and occupational risks during the years 1989, 1990 and 1991. The Committee welcomes these indications but, in order to be able to appreciate the real impact of the increases, it again asks the Government to send in its next report all the statistical information requested by the report form under this Article of the Convention.