2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE ELEVEN - Workmen’s Compensation (§§ 1 — 268) › Chapter 9 - Temporary Disability Benefits (§§ 201 — 212) › § 202 - Definitions

Unless otherwise deduced from the context, the terms stated below shall have the following meanings:
(a) Base year.— Means the first 4 of the last 5 calendar quarters as defined in § 203(b)(1) of this title.
(b) Disability benefit.— Means the sum payable to an individual under this chapter with respect to his disability.
(c) Calendar quarter.— Means the period of three calendar consecutive months ending on March 31, June 30, September 30 or December 31.
(d) Claimant of disability benefit.— Means an individual who has filed a claim for disability benefits.
(e) Contribution.— Means the money payments required by this chapter to be made into the Disability Benefit Fund.
(f) Director.— Means the Director of the Chauffeurs and Persons with Non-Ocupational Disabilities Benefits Bureau.
(g) Disability.— With respect to an employed worker means his/her inability to do his/her customary work or any other work due to injury, illness or pregnancy. “Disability” occurring during the period of unemployment means the inability of a worker to fulfill the duties of any job for which he/she is reasonably qualified in view of his/her training and experience, as a result of an injury, illness or pregnancy. A “disabled person” is a person who is unable to work. “Disability period” shall be the period during which the person is continually disabled.
For the purposes of this chapter, it shall be understood that a woman is unable to work during the eight (8) weeks of pregnancy leave provided by §§ 467 et seq. of Title 29.
(h) Employer.— means:
(1) Any employing unit which during any day of the current or preceding calendar year has or had in employment 1 or more individuals;
(2) any employing unit which having become an employer under clause (1) of this subsection, has not, under § 207(d) of this title, ceased to be an employer subject to this chapter, and
(3) any employing unit which has, during the period granted therefor, elected to become subject to this chapter pursuant to § 207(e)(1) of this title.
(i) Employing unit.— means:
(1) Any individual or type of organization, including agencies and instrumentalities of the Commonwealth or of any political subdivision thereof, heretofore or hereafter organized to operate as private enterprises, or any partnership, association, trust, estate, joint-stock company, insurance company, or corporation, whether domestic or foreign, or the receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, or successor of any of the foregoing, or the legal representative of a deceased person who has, or subsequent to the effective date of this act, has had one or more individuals in his service within Puerto Rico.
(2) All workers performing service within the territorial limits of Puerto Rico for any employing unit operating two or more separate establishments within said territorial limits shall for all purposes of this chapter, be deemed to be performing service for a single employing unit.
(3) Whenever an employing unit contracts with any other employing unit for any work which is part of the usual trade, occupation, profession or business of the former employing unit, each worker who performs service in employment under such contract shall, for the purpose of determining whether the former employing unit is an employer under subsection (h) of this section, be deemed to be performing such service in employment for the former employing unit; Provided, That if the latter employing unit is not an employer under subsection (h) of this section, each such worker shall, for all purposes of this chapter, be deemed to be performing such service in employment for the former employing unit.
(4) Any individual engaged to perform or assist to perform the work of any person in the service of an employing unit shall, for all purposes of this chapter, be deemed to be engaged by such employing unit, whether such individual was engaged or paid directly by such employing unit or by such other person, provided the employing unit had actual or constructive knowledge of the work.
(j)
(1) Employment.— means:
(A) Any service performed by an individual for wages including:
(i) Services rendered in interstate commerce and in commerce with foreign countries;
(ii) services deemed as “employment” under § 202(j)(5) of this title;
(iii) services rendered by any individual:
(I) As an itinerant or traveling salesman (who is not a driver-agent or a commission driver) engaged in procuring for the benefit of his employer and to transmit orders from wholesalers, retailers, contractors, hotel, restaurant or any other similar establishment operators for merchandise to resell or materials for use in the operation of their businesses.
(II) Insurance agents.
(III) Domicile workers performing work in accordance with the specifications furnished by the person for whom the work is being performed, with materials or goods provided by said person and which must be returned to him or to any other person designated by him.
Provided, That the services enumerated in this subparagraph shall only be considered as “employment” if:
(I) The contract service considers that the services shall be personally performed;
(II) the person has no substantial interest in connection with the performance of the service, except transportation facilities or the necessary equipment for the rendering of the service, and
(III) the services do not constitute a separate transaction, but are part of a continuous relationship with the person for whom the services are rendered.
For the purposes of this clause, the term “person” shall include, without it being construed as a limitation, any individual as well as any officer of a corporation or member of a company, association, estate or civil or business partnership of a professional, cooperative or of any other nature.
(B) Services performed by a person for the agencies and instrumentalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or of the municipalities, organized to operate as private enterprises.
(C) Agricultural labor and the employees of the sugar centrals.
(i) Agricultural labor shall be understood as the services performed:
(I) In the agricultural phase of the sugar industry in the preparation of land, planting, cultivation and harvesting of the sugarcane and the transportation of the sugarcane when performed by the employer-farmer, as well as any other work or service necessary for said activities or those related thereto.
(II) On a farm, in the employ of any person; in connection with the cultivation of the soil, or in connection with the cultivation, reaping or harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the cultivation, felling and pruning of trees and the raising, feeding, caring for, training and handling of livestock, bees and poultry or in connection with any fish, seafood or crustacean.
(III) In the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm, in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement or maintenance of such farm and its tools and equipment, or in salvaging timber or clearing land of brush and other debris left by a hurricane, or any other act of nature, if the major part of such service is performed on a farm.
(IV) In connection with the ginning of cotton or with the operation and upkeep of ditches, canals, reservoirs or water conduits not owned or operated for profit, used exclusively for the supply and utilization of water for farming purposes.
(V) In the employ of the operator or of a group of operators of farms or of a farm cooperative organization of which the operators are members, in the handling, planting, drying, bottling, packing, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering for storage or for the market or to the carrier for transporting to the market, without processing, of any agricultural or horticultural consumer product, but only if such operator or operators produced more than half of the consumer product with respect to which said service is performed.
The provisions of this paragraph shall not be construed as applicable with respect to the service performed in connection with commercial canning or freezing, nor in connection with any agricultural or horticultural consumer commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption, nor in connection with the commercial processing of sugar, tobacco, coffee or fruits.
As used in this subsection, the term “farm” includes stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, truck farms, plantations, nurseries, pasture and forest ranges, greenhouses or other similar structures used primarily for the raising of agricultural or horticultural commodities and orchards.
(ii) Sugar central employees shall be understood to be all individuals having a labor-management relationship with a sugar central and working in the production of raw sugar, sugarcane juice and molasses and in any other task or service directly related to the activities already mentioned.
(2) The term “employment” shall include an individual’s entire service performed within, and the entire partial service performed within and without, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, if the service is localized in Puerto Rico. Service shall be deemed to be localized in Puerto Rico if:
(A) The service is performed entirely within Puerto Rico, or
(B) the service is performed both within and without Puerto Rico, but the service performed without Puerto Rico is incidental to the individual’s service performed within Puerto Rico; for example, is temporary or transitory in nature or consists of isolated transactions.
(3) The term “employment” shall include an individual’s entire service performed within or within and without Puerto Rico, if the service is not localized in Puerto Rico but some of the service is performed here; and
(A) The individual’s base of operations is in Puerto Rico; or
(B) if there is no base of operations, then the place from which such service is directed or controlled is in Puerto Rico, or
(C) the individual’s base of operations, or place from which such service is directed or controlled is not in any place where some part of the service is performed, but the individual’s residence is in Puerto Rico.
(4) Service performed by an individual by virtue of an election approved by the Director under § 207(e)(1) of this title shall be deemed to be employment during the effective period of the election’s approval.
(5) Service performed by an individual shall be deemed to be employment subject to this chapter irrespective of whether a management-labor relationship exists, unless and until it is shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary that:
(A) Such individual has been and will continue to be free from control and direction in connection with the performance of such service, both under his contract for the performance of service, and in fact; and
(B) such service is performed either outside of the usual course of the business for which the service is performed or outside of all the places of business of the enterprise for which the service is performed, and
(C) said individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed.
(6) The term “employment” shall not include:
(A) Domestic service in a private home.
(B) Service outside the course of the employing unit’s trade or business performed in any calendar quarter by an individual, unless the cash remuneration paid for such service is $50 or more and such service is performed by an individual who is regularly employed by such employing unit to perform such service.
(C) For the purposes of paragraph (B) above, an individual shall be deemed to be regularly employed to perform service outside the course of an employing unit’s trade or business during a calendar quarter only if:
(i) On each day of any period of 24 working days during such quarter such individual performs such service for some portion of the day, or
(ii) Such individual was regularly employed (as determined under subparagraph (i) of this paragraph) by such employing unit in the performance of such service during the preceding calendar quarter.
(D) Service performed as an employee of a school, college or university, if said service is performed by a student who is enrolled and regularly attending classes in said school, college or university.
(E) Service performed by an officer or member of the crew of any ship.
(F) Service performed by an individual, officer or member of the crew while it is engaged in the catching, taking, harvesting or cultivating of any kind of fish, shellfish, crustacea, sponges, seaweeds or other forms of aquatic animal or vegetal life, including service performed by any such individual as an incident to any such activity, except:
(i) Service performed in connection with the catching or taking of salmon or halibut for commercial purposes, and
(ii) Service performed on or in connection with a vessel of more than 10 net tons (determined in the manner provided for determining the registered tonnage of merchant vessels under the laws of the United States).
(G) Service performed by an individual in the employ of his son, daughter or spouse, and service performed by a child under the age of twenty-one, not a head of a family, in the employ of his father or mother.
(H) Service performed in the employ of the United States Government or of an instrumentality of the United States exempt under the constitution or under any other law of the United States from the contributions imposed by this chapter.
(I) Service performed by an individual for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or any political subdivisions thereof, or an instrumentality of any one or more of the foregoing which is wholly owned by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or by one or more of its political subdivisions, with the exception of those agencies or instrumentalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or of the municipalities, operating as private enterprises.
(J) Service performed on an unemployment work relief project undertaken by the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or any subdivision thereof.
(K) Service performed in the employ of any state or any political subdivision thereof or any instrumentality of any one or more of the foregoing.
(L) Service covered under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (Pb 722) of June 25, 1938.
(M) Service performed in the employ of a foreign government, including service as a consul or other officer or employee or a nondiplomatic representative.
(N) Service performed in the employ of an instrumentality wholly owned by a foreign government.
(O) Service performed in the employ of a governmental or intergovernmental organization of international character.
(P) Services performed by a person registered in a public or nonprofit educational institution which normally has a regular faculty and curriculum and normally has an organized student body present in the locality where its educational activities take place as if dealing with a student in a full-time program accepted to receive credit in said institution, that combines academic studies with work experience, if the service is an integral part of said program and said institution has so certified to the employer, except that this subparagraph shall not apply to services rendered in a program established for or in behalf of an employer or group of employers.
(Q) Service performed in the employ of a corporation, institution, partnership, association, foundation or any communal fund or any other organization described in § 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code created and administered exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purposes or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, none of whose net profits redound in benefit of any stockholder or private individual; provided said organization is exempt from income tax under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code. This exemption shall not be extensive to the service rendered in connection with the substantial construction, demolition, enlargement, remodeling or repair of buildings and other analogous works.
(R) Any individual covered by the provisions of §§ 681—694 of Title 29.
(S) Services rendered by a partner for the partnership of which he is a party.
(T) Services rendered by a real estate agent and by a domicile salesman.
For the purposes of this paragraph:
(i) A real estate agent shall be an individual who:
(I) Has a real estate agent’s license, and
(II) the remuneration he receives is based on the services rendered and not on the hours worked, and
(III) renders services in accordance with a written contract with the person for whom the services are rendered and said contract provides that he shall not be considered an employee for the purposes of this chapter.
(ii) A domicile salesman shall be an individual who:
(I) Is engaged in the trade or sale (or to request the sale) of articles of use or consumption to any buyer to be resold (by the buyer or any other person) in his domicile or in any place that is not an establishment or a business, and
(II) the remuneration he receives is determined by the sales and not the hours worked, and
(III) the services are rendered in accordance with a written contract with the person who renders the same and said contract provides that he shall not be deemed an employee for the purposes of this chapter.
(7) If the service performed during one-half or more of any pay period by an individual for an employing unit constitutes employment under this chapter, all the service of such individual for such period shall be deemed to be employment; but if the service performed during more than one-half of any such pay period by an individual for an employing unit does not constitute employment, then none of the service of such individual for such period shall be deemed to be employment. As used in this paragraph, the term “pay period” means a period of not more than 31 consecutive days for which a payment for service is ordinarily made to the individual by the employing unit.
(k) Fund.— Means the Disability Benefit Fund established by this chapter.
(l) Insured work.— Means employment by employers.
(m) Insured worker.— Means an individual who, with respect to a base year, meets the wage and employment requirements of § 203 of this title.
(n)
(1) Secretary.— Means the Secretary of Labor and Human Resources of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(2) Secretary of the Treasury.— Means the Secretary of the Treasury of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(o)
(1) Wages.— Means:
(A) All compensation for services from whatever source, including commissions and bonuses and the cash value of all remuneration in any medium other than cash. However, the Christmas Bonus provided by §§ 501 et seq. of Title 29 shall not be deemed as wages for the payment of disability benefits.
(B) Any payment made for vacation or sick leave.
(C) Back pay awarded under any statute of Puerto Rico or the United States.
The cash value of any remuneration in any medium other than money, shall be computed and determined as prescribed through rules by the Secretary. For the sole purpose of a determination of insured status of an individual, back-pay awards shall be allocated to the quarters with respect to which they were made. If the remuneration of an individual is not based upon a fixed period or duration of time, or if his wages are paid at irregular intervals or so as not to extend regularly over the period of employment, for the sole purpose of a determination of said individual’s insured status the wages shall be allocated to weeks or quarters as the Secretary may by regulation prescribe. Such regulations shall, so far as possible, produce results reasonably similar to those which would prevail if the individual were paid his wages at regular intervals.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of clause (1) of this subsection the term “wages” shall not include:
(A) Gratuities, meaning money or other things customarily tendered to employees in the course of their services by persons other than his employing unit.
(B) The amount of any compensation obtained through a judgment, stipulation, transaction or the voluntary act of an employer, in addition to the salary the individual is entitled to receive.
(C) The amount paid by an employing unit covered by this chapter for retirement, hospitalization, or medical and medicine expenses under some plan established by such employing unit.
(D) The amount paid by an employing unit as premiums under some plan providing for retirement or insurance payments to its employees.
(E) The payment made as compensation for dismissal.
(p) Covered wages.— Means wages paid for covered employment. receives is based on the services rendered and not on the hours worked, and
(q) Hospitalization.— Means to enter a hospital, emergency room or an office specialized in outpatient surgery for twenty-four (24) hours or more, for any health condition diagnosed by a physician and for which treatment must be received at that type of institution.
(r) Dependency.— Means real and direct financial dependency of a substantial nature, by virtue of which a person depends on the financial contributions of another for his support and not of mere financial assistance.
History —June 26, 1968, No. 139, p. 354, § 2; May 30, 1970, No. 83, p. 205, § 2; May 31, 1972, No. 85, p. 204, § 1; Nov. 12, 1975, No. 24, p. 828, § 1; July 26, 1979, No. 191, p. 527, § 1; July 1, 1988, No. 51, p. 237, § 2; Dec. 30, 1995, No. 262, § 1.