After seventeen years of working as a call center agent, Joselinda Enriquez started to experience hoarseness of voice and was later diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia. A rare speech disorder for which she was granted with Employees’ Compensation (EC) benefits.

According to Enriquez, the symptoms of her illness manifested in May 2023. Despite being temporarily assigned to handle non-voice accounts in the succeeding months, her voice increasingly sounded strained. Eventually, she also suffered from breaks and interruptions in speech. She was later diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, a disorder affecting the voice muscles in the larynx, also called the voice box.

The Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) Regional Extension Unit IV-A assisted Enriquez in coordinating with her company to file her EC Sickness benefits at the Social Security System (SSS). Enriquez received her EC Sickness benefit on November 3, 2023 and a Php. 10,000 EC cash assistance on January 25, 2024.

The EC Program provides benefits to workers who suffered from work-related contingencies. Although not included in the list of occupational and work-related diseases, Enriquez’s speech disorder was deemed work-related by SSS under the “increased risk theory”. Said principle provides for the compensability of an illness under the EC Program so long as there is substantial evidence to prove that the illness was caused by factors inherent in the worker’s nature of work or working conditions.

Workers who have received EC Sickness benefit are also qualified to avail of the EC cash assistance, the application for which may be filed at any ECC office.

 

J. Romasanta – REU4A