Friday, August 21st, 2009 03:55:00 
 

THE Social Security Organisation or Socso was established to provide social security in the form of monetary awards and rehabilitative aid to its contributors.
 
From time to time it has to review its policies and services to meet the current demands and needs of the society, to continuously upgrade its efficiency in terms of coverage and delivery.

One of the coverage that Socso provides is employment injury. It covers, among others, injury sustained while performing one's designated duties or sustained in the designated premises.

In cases of non-open injuries, the person is seen by a medical practitioner and may be given outpatient treatment. He or she may or may not be given a medical certificate by the attending doctor; however he or she may be given a time slip with prescriptions and sent back to work.

In some companies, the time slip is not accepted and here Socso must know that the employers have the right to reject the time slip and cut the salary of the employee.

Also, in some companies, if an employee is away for two hours, he or she has to apply for half-day annual
leave.

So, when this happens, Socso must step forward and pay the compensation to the employee because such employment injury comes under its coverage. Socso must also ensure that the applicant's or insured person's monthly wage and other basic benefits are not affected by the employment injury.

For muscular or any other connective tissue injuries, the victim needs to go for physiotherapy treatment over a few weeks to months. After the treatment, the patient is again not given any medical certificate but only a time slip. Once again the worker loses his benefits.

Socso must widen its coverage by paying the insured person the salary for the period stated in the time slip. It must not just look at medical certificates (MC) only but into other aspects as well as it is not fair for the insured person to use his annual leave to get treatment for employment injury.

Socso must make an effort to study this problem and come up with solutions rather than quote laws and regulations which may justify their inaction but betray contributors' needs.

There is another predicament faced by workers who are given time slips - especially plantation workers, as some estates do not provide healthcare for their workers.

These workers will have to travel to the nearest government or private clinic, which will be quite a distance from their quarters.

This travel costs money and worse, when they are given time slips, they do not get any compensation.

They end up losing a day's wage after already incurring extra expenditure.

It is for these reasons they often demand MCs, which ends up giving the impression they are MC seekers or malingerers.

Their complaints are often treated with suspicion and, if they are referred to a physiotherapist, these workers endure the hardship of extra travel costs - and losing their wages.

The right to appropriate medical treatment is a basic human right. While nobody denies this and may proudly declare that due care is given, the above cases clearly show the shortcomings of the present delivery
system.

We hope that the concerned authorities concerned will look into this and act fairly.

Wilson & K. Daniel Raj

Source: http://www.mmail.com.my/content/11260-mailbox-socso-should-extend-compensation-coverage