Social Insurance Law
PART 4: MINISTERIAL ORDERS
ORDER NO. 6/INSURANCE DATED 4.9. 1976 WITH RESPECT TO PROCEDURES INVOLVING EXECUTIVE MEASURES PERTAINING TO THE BRANCH OF INSURANCE AGAINST EMPLOYMENT ACCIDENTS The Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, After referring to the Law of Social Insurance issued by Decree-Law No. 24/1976, HEREBY ORDERS :
Firstly : Notification of Employment Accidents and Treatment Thereof
Article 1
The insured who sustains any employment accident shall be required to notify the employer or his representative immediately even if his injury has not interrupted the continuance of his work. If the injury resulted in the interruption of the work of the injured, the employer shall be required to report the accident within 24 hours to the police station in whose jurisdiction the accident occurred. He shall report same to the General Organisation for Social Insurance on the form prescribed for this purpose.
Should the accident occurred outside the place of work, the insured person shall be required to report it to the police station as soon as his condition permits him. In the event of his injury preventing him from reporting it in the aforementioned manner, such communication may be made on his behalf by anyone.
Article 2
The insured person may proceed to effect the notification mentioned in paragraph one of the foregoing article whenever the condition of his health permits him to do so the employer, the police station and the aforementioned General Organisation.
Article 3
The employer shall notify his workers of the treating centre specified for rendering first aid in case of injury as well as treatment and measures to be taken in the event of the occurrence of injury in the area of the place of work or outside it. The notice shall be posted up in a prominent place in more sites of work than one; such notice shall be clearly written in Arabic as well as in a foreign language.
Article 4
The General Organisation for Social Insurance, when it concludes contracts with institutions which are entrusted with the care of medical treatment, shall incorporate in the said instruments, all matters aimed at the realisation of the best interests and comforts of the injured and in particular:
- Medical treatment and accommodation in hospital shall be in accordance with medical standards agreed upon with the Ministry of Health.
- The treating centre shall furnish documents regarding the condition of the injured; the circumstances and period of treatment; date of the stoppage of work; date of return to work and the evaluation of the degree of disability after the case of injury has been settled.
- The said treating centre shall maintain documents connected with the treatment of the injured and shall submit them to the General Organisation for Social Insurance upon its request of information. The said Organisation shall be entitled to obtain certified copies thereof and the treating centre shall maintain these documents for a period of 5 years commencing from the date of the last document pertaining to the accident.
Article 5
The insured injured persons shall be treated at hospitals, public and private health institutions in accordance with the terms of the agreements entered into for this purpose.
In case of emergency when there is a need is a need to save the life of the insured injured person and as a result of which it becomes difficult to reach in good time the places of medical treatment indicate under the foregoing first paragraph, the employer shall be entitled to refer the insured worker to any doctor or to any private medical clinic other than those herein specified. Similarly the insured person shall have the same claims under the said conditions provided that he notifies the General Organisation for Social Insurance in writing under registered letter within a 3-day grace period from the date of utilizing this right unless emergency conditions prevented him from doing so because of exceptional circumstances so recognized by the General Organisation thus the grace period may subsequently extended. Thus the Organisation for Social Insurance shall bear the cost of medical treatment as these institutions provided that the doctor in-charge, in a medical report, states that the physical condition of the injured required speedy treatment or that it had been difficult for him to arrive in time at one of the medical treatment centres meant for the treatment of the injured workers of the employers.
Article 6
If it were difficult to treat the injured person locally and his condition required treatment outside the State of Bahrain his case should be submitted to the authorised medical commission. If his case were approved, it shall embody it in a resolution including the estimated cost of treatment, travel fare and accommodation as well as the name of the institution at which to treat the injured person.
The cost of accommodation should be paid in accordance with the categories laid down for the per diem allowances prescribed for civil servants while ensuring conformity with the salary scale wherein the wage out of which the insured pays his contribution to the insurance at the time of the occurrence of the injury.
The insured shall not be entitled to cost of accommodation, if he lodged inside the hospital
Article 7
If the authorized medical commission was of the view that the injured needed a companion, he should be paid the cost of travel-fare and accommodation at the rate prescribed for the injured person.
Article 8
The General Organisation for Social Insurance and the insured person shall be entitled to lodge a request to the authorized medical commission to reconsider its resolution referred to in the previous Article 6 within one week of the date of the receipt of the said resolution.
The request to reconsider the resolution mentioned in the foregoing paragraph shall be filed before the Appellate Medical Board provided for in the Social Insurance Law. The said General Organisation shall notify the injured of the Board's decision by registered letter within one week at the latest, of the date of the receipt of the decision of the Board. Such decisions shall be final in terms of the provisions of Article 73 of the above-mentioned Law.
Article 9
Should the employment injury suffer a relapse or any complication or complications after the statement of the injured's condition, leading to incapacitation of the insured person and preventing him from performing his work, he shall be entitled to medical treatment in terms of this Order, provided that he shall immediately notify the employer or his representative. In addition, the employer shall report the matter to the General Organisation for Social Insurance on the form prepared for this purpose.
Article 10
If facilities are not available for the restoration and surgeries required for the insured at the hospitals and private medical centres, it shall be the responsibility of the General Organisation for Social Insurance to defray the expenses incurred thereat. Should the deformity, arising from the injury, has an effect on the injured's capacity to perform his profession or should it intervene in his social life, the same considerations would apply depending on the recommendation of the medical commission concerned.
Article 11
The artificial limbs, compensatory appliances and medical equipment required for the insured injured person shall be made available by the public health centres as soon as the condition of the injured is settled. If the said limbs or equipment are not available at the above health centres, the General Organisation shall provide them at its own expense from places other than the above-mentioned in accordance with the decision of the authorised medical commission.
The injured person shall be entitled to ask for the maintenance, repair or replacement of these limbs or appliances from the said centres unless the damage caused to them is due to their misuse or wilful neglect.
The said artificial limbs and appliances will be provided if the doctor is of the view that they would enable the injured person to pursue his official business or enhance his productive capacity. Such limbs or appliances may not be provided if its use was for satisfying an organic defect resulted from the injury.
The General Organisation shall provide the following appliances as set down by the authorised medical commission, if the injured's state of health is settled and provided that the fixing of the appliance would not square with the said state of health. These appliances are as follows:
Secondly : Expenses Incurred in Transport and Daily Allowances
Article 12
The General Organisation shall incur the expenses of transport of the injured to and from the place of work or his residence to:-
The course of transport shall be paid as for the normal means of transport or the means which the doctor in charge deems suited to the condition of the injured in terms of the tariff applicable.
Article 13
The injured person insured by more employers than one subject to the Social Insurance Law shall be eligible for the daily allowance as provided for in article 53 of the aforementioned Law and on the basis of the total wages on the basis of which his contribution to the insurance has been made.
Article 14
If the relapse arising from a previous employment injury which has been designated as such under the provisions of the Social Insurance Law or if a complication resulted in temporary incapacitation of the worker in his work covered by insurance, he shall be eligible for daily allowance as indicated in the foregoing article throughout the period of his incapacitation which shall have been medically recorded. This course shall be on the basis of the wage for which the contribution to insurance is made at the time of the occurrence of the relapse or complication.
The insured person shall be eligible for a daily allowance during the period of his absence from work on account of fixing, maintenance, replacement of the aid appliance or the artificial limb or on account of the training thereat. Payment shall be on the basis of the wage for which contribution to Social Insurance was made at the time of the absence from work for that reason.
Should the insured person be eligible for pension on account of partial permanent disability, the payment of pension shall cease during the period of eligibility for allowance unless such allowance is less than the pension and in which case he is entitled to continue drawing the pension and not the allowance.
Should the case of relapse or complication occur when the worker was unemployed, the daily allowance shall be paid on the basis of the last wage upon which basis contribution to insurance has been made.
The two cases of relapse and complication resulting from a previous employment injury are subject to the provisions applicable to accidents falling under the proviso of notification of the employer and the General Organisation for Social Insurance and the furnishing of the initial treatment report and also the notice with respect to return to work and the medical certificate in accordance with the attached forms.
Article 15
There shall not be combination of the daily allowance for period of temporary incapacity resulting from employment accident and the wage whether it is paid for work covered by social insurance or not. If it were proved that the injured person has been employed by an employer in the aforementioned manner during the period of establishing his temporary incapacity from work, the payment of the daily allowance shall be stopped and the procedures, with respect to reimbursement of whatever allowances were injustifiably paid, shall be set in motion.
Article 16
The payment of expenses incurred by way of transport and the daily allowances due to the injured worker, while at work, shall be made at the time of paying his wages, if it be monthly, fortnightly or otherwise.
Thirdly : Re-examination of the Worker sustaining Employment Accident
Article 17
Should the re-examination of a pensioner with permanent disability resulted in the reduction of the degree of disability to less than 30% of the total permanent disability, the payment of the pension shall cease completely from the beginning of the month following the date of the report of the authorised medical commission and the injured person shall be paid compensation in a lump sum in accordance with the new degree of disability.
In case there is any change in the degree of disability, whether more or less and the injured person shall be accordingly eligible for an amended pension or compensation in a lump sum either of which shall be calculated on the basis of the wage subject to the contribution to the insurance upon which the pension has been calculated before its amendment.
Fourthly : Increasing Insurance Contribution in the Branch of Insurance against Employment Accidents
Article 18
In the application of the provision of Article 49 of the Social Insurance Law, a Ministerial Order from the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs shall be issued against each of the employers who refused to comply with the instruction of the authorities concerned with respect to the worker's safety and health. The said order shall specify the authority which issued the safety instructions, grounds of contraventions and the rate of increase in the contribution to the insurance of the branch of employment accidents in proportion to the intensity of the contravention.
The order shall be issued after one week of the date of serving notice to the employer by the General Organisation for Social Insurance of the refusal to adhere to the said instructions. As soon as the order is issued, the employer shall be made known of it. If the employer eliminates the causes of contravention during the month following that in which the increase in contribution to the insurance has been announced and if he submitted to the said General Organisation, during the month hereinbefore mentioned, documents to this effect from the authority which issued the instructions mentioned in paragraph on of this Article, he shall continue to pay the contribution of insurance against employment accidents according to the rates provided for in Clause 1 of Article 47 of the Social Insurance Law.
Article 19
If the employer fails to submit the documents establishing the elimination of the causes of the contravention indicated in the foregoing article, the Ministerial Order, providing for an increase of contribution of insurance to the branch of employment accidents at the rate of 50% of the contribution to the said branch, shall be issued. In the event of persistence of the refusal for a period of 2 months, the order shall be for doubling the contribution. The new increase and the original contribution shall remain valid until such time as the causes of violation are eliminated and whatever proofs are submitted from the relevant authority.
Contributions modified by the said increase shall be levied for the whole month or months when there is a failure to comply with instructions meant for the workers' safety and health with reference to the period of grace mentioned in the foregoing paragraph.
Increase of contribution to insurance under the branch of employment accidents shall not be levied for the month when it is proved that the employer has eliminated the causes of violation.
Article 20
The incidence of violation or the elimination of its causes shall be established by an official document from the relevant authority which document shall be forwarded to the General Organisation for Social Insurance with an explanation of the causes and procedures adopted for their elimination coupled with the date of the said elimination under the provisions of the two foregoing articles. Fifthly : The forms and their uses
Article 21
The following forms included in the attached appendices shall be used for the purposes and shall be submitted as follows:
- Form No. 1 Insurance/Injuries - Notification of the occurrence of and Employment Accident/or Occupational Disease - to be filled in one original and three copies. The original shall be handed to the worker to be submitted to the hospital. A copy shall be sent to the police station in whose area the employment accident has taken place. The second copy shall be sent to the General Organisation for Social Insurance and the employer shall keep the third copy.
- Form No. 2 Insurance/Injuries - Preliminary Medical Report - to be filled in one original and two duplicated. The original shall be sent to the General Organisation for Social Insurance and the first duplicate shall be sent to the employer and the hospital shall maintain the second duplicate.
- Form No. 3 Insurance/Injuries - Medical Card for Treatment from an employment accident - to be filled in one original to be given to the worker and the hospital or the treating doctor shall maintain a copy.
- Form No. 4 Insurance/Injuries - Notice for return to work - to be filled in one original and three duplicates. The original to be sent to the employer, the first duplicate to be given to the worker, the second duplicate to be sent to the General Organisation for Social Insurance and the hospital shall maintain the third duplicate.
- Form No. 5 Insurance/Injuries - Medical Certificate of the Degree of Permanent Disability/or Death as a Result of Employment Accident. It shall be filled in by the Board of the Medical Referees immediately after the case is settled or after the occurrence of death. In case of disability, the certificate shall be handed to the worker, or his family in case of death, to be submitted to the General Organisation for Social Insurance.
Sixthly : Other Provisions
Article 22
This order shall be submitted to the Board of Directors of the General Organisation at its first meeting.
Article 23
This order and the attached appendices shall be published in the Official Gazette and it shall be put into effect from 1st October 1976.