According to Article 474 of the Federal Labor Law, work accident is any immediate or later organic lesion or functional disturbance, or sudden death produced in the work or as a result of it, regardless of the place and time in which it is presented. Accidents that occur during commuting directly from home to the workplace and vice versa are included in this definition
Hector Cornejo Flores, head of the Supervision Department of Economic Benefits at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in Jalisco, called beneficiaries to notify any work accident to the IMSS, so that the incapacity payment to the affected can be issued.
He said that if a worker suffers an accident in the workplace, either within or on the way to it, should go immediately to the Family Medicine Unit (FMU) or nearest IMSS’s hospital.
He added that the Institute may grant a period of incapacity for risk or work accident by maximum 52 weeks, but this must be reported promptly by filling a notice document in the emergency department.
“The worker visits the emergency department, where he receives a format called notice to qualify probable risk. It is filled by the employer with the description of how the accident happened; and we also have the version of the worker,” he said.
The official said that on several occasions, incapacity compensation due to a work accident during commuting is denied, since the employee comes to medical review in a Social Security unit after hours, or even days, of the mishap occurred.
Incapacity compensation due to work accident, said Cornejo Flores, is a subsidy paid 100 percent by the IMSS to the worker, if the physician determines that the injury impedes the patient to continue working and it is attributable to his work activity.
This incapacity compensation does not require waiting time to be paid, he said. It runs from the first day, when the injury happened, until recovery or a maximum of 52 weeks, granting 100 percent of salary recorded at the time of the accident, he added.
He said the commuting accident qualifies based on an evaluation made by Health Work physicians. These experts assess the injury and check if the worker traveled exclusively from work to home or vice versa, within the corresponding work entrance and exit hours, with no deviations from the route.
As long as the insured go to work from home or return from work to home, is considered commuting accidents. They are determined by the trajectory, the physician assesses the journey between the insured’s home and work or the other way round, as well as the possible times when the patient could have travel. They review if the time and place of the accident are consistent with a commuting accident, he explained.
Payment is not related to the time the employee has worked for the institution or company; it is a right that runs from the first day the worker is register by his employer to the IMSS.
Source: Notimex
