Suspensions due to covid-19 will not affect the right to pay the subsidy to IGSS affiliates
The Guatemalan Institute of Social Security (IGSS), published this Thursday, October 27, Agreement 1532, of the board of directors, in which it establishes that the subsidy payment period for suspension of work due to covid-19 illness, is not included in the counting of the maximum subsidy term, regulated in Article 30 of Agreement Number 468 of the Board of Directors, Regulation on Cash Benefits.
In the agreement published this day, it is mentioned that affiliates entitled to the Illness, Maternity and Accident Program, when they are suspended from their work due to covid-19, are provided with a subsidy, an economic benefit, the substitute for the salary that the affiliated worker ceases to receive due to said suspension.
It adds that said subsidy is granted to the beneficiaries according to the salary reported in the social security forms and in the proportion that the regulations of the Institute establish, therefore, it is necessary to make its timely payment viable.
It points out that article 30 of Agreement Number 468 of the Board of Directors, Regulation of Cash Benefits, establishes that the maximum term for payment of sickness benefits is 39 weeks and article 31 of the same regulatory body lists the rules for the computation of that maximum period of sickness benefit.
Among the aforementioned rules, subparagraph a) states the following: “that when another disease appears during the incapacity due to a certain illness, the time of benefit will continue to be computed as if the illnesses were the same.”
The agreement explains that “derived from the unexpected way in which the pandemic caused by covid-19 emerged, it is considered necessary that in the count of the maximum period of 39 weeks, the period of payment of subsidy for suspension due to illness caused by COVID-19 is not included. the covid-19, so that the affiliate has the right to payment for the maximum period of weeks that corresponds for the other diseases that he suffers ”.
That is why it agreed that the subsidy payment period for suspension of work due to covid-19 illness, not be included in the count of the maximum subsidy term, regulated in Article 30 of Agreement Number 468 of the Board of Directors, Regulation on Benefits in money.
It adds that this provision will apply for the period of payment for suspension of work that the treating physician specifically orders the member for the first suspension, but not for the period of suspension for continuation, relapses, sequelae, complications or other circumstances that may arise. because of covid-19.
It also establishes that if the affiliate, after being discharged to work, is again infected by covid-19 and is again ordered a suspension from work due to said disease, this new suspension will be considered as the first suspension, so that in the same way it will not be included in the count of the maximum period of sickness benefit.
The agreement mentions that this provision will apply both to the subsidy payment period for new suspensions due to covid-19 and for those that are in process.
The regulations also establish that this agreement is temporary and that it will take effect as of its approval, for suspensions in process that have been issued until the health emergency, caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus (Covid-1) pandemic, fades away. 19), as established by the corresponding authorities.
This Agreement becomes effective the day after its publication in the Diario de Centro América.
