AMMAN — Insurance
and social protection expert and former spokesman for the
Social Security Cooperation (SSC) Mousa Al-Subaihi questioned why only hospital and laboratory
professionals, insured under the Social Security umbrella, who are infected
with the coronavirus, are considered in the category of "occupational
injuries".
اضافة اعلان
Subaihi told
Jordan
News that work injuries should include any injury that an insured person is
subjected to at the workplace as a result of direct contact with the public,
saying the SSC's decision to limit infection with COVID-19 — as occupational
injury — to professionals working in hospitals and laboratories reflects a restricted
interpretation of the law.
He said that any
insured person who gets infected with COVID-19 at work, or in a work-related
environment should be recognized as a victim of work injury, especially if that
infection leads to disability or death.
Subaihi also
wondered why health workers providing services at vaccine centers and
PCR test locations are not included in the work injury insurance. "What if a health
worker gets infected while performing his duty or as a consequence of that
duty?"
He said any worker
in these centers is exposed to infection with the virus at any moment from any
patient, and asked: "So can we say that his infection does not fall within
the occupational disease and therefore is not considered a work injury?”
A member of the
Auxiliary Health Occupation Committee, who spoke to
Jordan News on
condition of anonymity, said that “despite the fact that auxiliary health
workers get in direct contact with people and that there is a high chance that
they could get infected with the virus, their infection is not recognized as a
work injury”.
He added that 14
workers had passed away since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and that a
significant number of health workers are infected, “however, only a few of them
were accorded compensation, and only a few months ago”.
He said that health
workers have been demanding an allowance of 135 percent on equal footing with
other similar sectors, but their demand has not been met. “Our demand has not
been fulfilled and therefore we are sure that if we ask for insurance
compensation this will never happen”
Shaman Al- Majali, SSC
official spokesman told
Jordan News that workers in hospitals and
medical laboratories have constant and direct contact with the primary cause of
the virus, and they are highly exposed
to being infected; "especially that they are in close touch with COVID-19
patients all the time”.
He also said that
not all workers in the medical sector can be covered; “We consider the work of
people in facilities that contain toxic gases as a dangerous profession, but
there are many who are exposed to these gases, indirectly however, and therefore
their work cannot be considered as a dangerous profession.”
He stressed the fact
that workers should be in a direct and constant contact with patients in order
for any possible infection to be considered as work injury.
Social Security
Corporation had earlier stated that infection with the coronavirus among
insured individuals working in hospitals and medical laboratories is considered
an occupational disease; a form of work injury under the
Social Security Law,
and therefore if the infection leads to the disability or death of the insured,
he/she is entitled to compensation.
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