2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE ELEVEN - Workmen’s Compensation (§§ 1 — 268) › Chapter 1 - Workmen’s Accident Compensation (§§ 1 — 42) › § 2 - Workers and employees covered in this chapter

The provisions of this chapter shall apply to all workers and employees working for their employers to whom the following paragraph refers, who suffer injuries, are disabled or lose their lives by reason of accidents caused by any act or function inherent to their work or employment, when such accidents happen in the course of said work or employment and as a consequence thereof or due to diseases or death caused by their trade, as specified in § 3 of this title. The provisions of this chapter shall also apply to any owner of a business or trade, or any individual employer working full-time in said business or trade whose gross income does not exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000). Specifically excepted from this provision are those workers or employees whose labor is [one] of an accidental or casual nature and is not included in the business, trade, profession or occupation of his employer.
The premium to be imposed for the risks involved with the job performed by the owner of the business, trade or the individual employer to which the previous paragraph makes reference, shall be determined through the regulations promulgated to such effect by the Administrator of the Puerto Rico State Insurance Fund Corporation.
When the owner to which the first paragraph of this provision refers suffers any injury or disease in the workplace, he/she shall submit a claim of the case within the term provided by law, using the forms of the State Insurance Fund Corporation to such effect. Said form shall be filled out under oath and include the name and address of the claimant, the insurance policy number, the circumstances under which the alleged accident or disease occurred, the date, hour and place, as well as the name and address of the witnesses, if any, and the signature of the claimant, among other things. The submittal of said report is required to receive medical-hospital services and all other benefits granted by law, with the exception of emergency treatment.
Any owner of a business or trade that opts for the benefits of this chapter when the injury or condition suffered is not related to his/her work shall be compelled to reimburse the State Insurance Fund Corporation for the expenses incurred.
This chapter, being of a remedial character, shall be construed liberally, and any reasonable doubt that may arise as to its application with regard to the existence of causal relation between the work or occupation of the workman or employee and the injury, disability or death, or the occupational character of a sickness, shall be decided in favor of the workman or employee, or his beneficiaries.
This chapter shall be applicable to all employers employing one or more workers or employees covered herein regardless of their wages. The Commonwealth Government and the municipal governments, boards, commissions, authorities, instrumentalities, public corporations, and agencies of the Commonwealth shall be deemed to be employers and as such shall come under the provisions of this chapter with regard to workers, employees and officials used by them. Voluntary municipal firefighters shall be included in the term “municipal employees”. Municipal legislators shall also be deemed to be included in the term “municipal employees” while in the discharge of their duties as such and while going to and returning from Municipal Legislature meetings and their homes. Jurors summoned to serve in the courts of justice of Puerto Rico shall be included in the term “Commonwealth officials” from the time they leave their homes until they return to them, whether they have served as jurors or not. In case of a work accident or illness and for the purpose of the payment of per diems or compensation, the weekly salary shall be estimated based on the salary earned in the regular position or employment pursuant to the provisions of § 3 of this title. If he draws no salary, the weekly salary shall be computed based on the minimum legal wage. The Administrator shall present the invoice for reimbursement to the municipalities or the Courts Administration, including the liquidation of the expenses incurred in the handling of the claims by the municipal firefighters, municipal legislators and court jurors, who will reimburse to the Fund the total shown by the liquidation of the funds appropriated for such purposes by them, and in the event that they lack an appropriation or it is insufficient, the reimbursement to the Fund shall be paid from any funds not destined for other appropriations.
Sharecroppers and their workmen shall, for the purposes of this chapter, be considered as workmen of the landlord, unless the sharecropping contract has been executed by public deed or private instrument signed before a notary, district judge, or justice of the peace, the Secretary of Labor and Human Resources or any agent thereof. For the purpose of the collection of the corresponding premium and of the payment of compensation, the wages of sharecroppers and their workmen shall be computed on the basis of the wage rate per working day fixed for other workmen in similar occupations, except when it should be verified that the participation of the sharecropper or of his workmen is equivalent to a larger sum; Provided, That workmen engaged in the growing of minor crops for their families’ consumption shall not be considered sharecroppers when the employer does not derive profit therefrom in cash or in kind.
In any case where a farm, industrial, public service employer or other uses employees, middlemen, adjuster or industrial partners to operate any farm product, merchandise or passenger transportation system, said employer shall be covered by the provisions of this chapter and shall insure the workers performing such transportation service, even when they are hired directly by the employees, middlemen, adjusters or industrial partners of such employer; Provided, That this paragraph shall not be applicable to the truck drivers who are concessionaires of the Public Service Commission that can obtain workers insurance under this chapter.
For the purposes of this chapter, industrial partners shall be considered employees unless the partnership to which they belong has been executed through public deed or instrument signed before a notary.
In every contract for an insular or municipal public works the amount of premiums on insurance of the workers to be employed on said work shall be included in the cost thereof, and the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works, the municipal treasurer or the corresponding official of the government department, board, commission, committee, authority, instrumentality, public corporation, bureau or agency, in charge of the works, shall withhold such an amount from the contractor to be paid to the State Insurance Fund Corporation. In the case of employers who have not been insured according to the provisions of this chapter, the following procedures shall be observed:
(1) In the case of contractors or owners of private works, the Regulations and Permits Administration shall not extend a permit for construction, structural alteration, enlargement, demolition, transfer or use of buildings until the employer has presented to it a certificate issued by the Manager accrediting that the work has been duly insured pursuant to law; Provided, further, That no officer or organization of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico may supply lighting, or sewer or aqueduct services, or render any public service whatsoever, including health licenses issued by the Department of Health, for the construction, structural alteration, enlargement, demolition, transfer or use of buildings, both in the urban and rural zones, until shown authentic proof that the work has been insured according to law.
(2) When any employer is conducting his/her activities or operations, of whatever nature they may be, without the corresponding insurance, the Administrator, either personally or through his/her assistants, shall have the power to suspend the same. Every employer shall be bound to comply with the orders of the Administrator of the State Insurance Fund Corporation without any excuse whatsoever and said suspension shall continue until the employer has been insured as provided in this chapter, and should the employer continue his/her activities or operations in spite of the prohibition of the Administrator of the State Insurance Fund Corporation, he/she shall be immediately brought before the court of competent jurisdiction and accused of disobedience to the order of the Administrator of the State Insurance Fund, and upon conviction he/she shall be punished with a fine not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) or a term of imprisonment not to exceed six (6) months, or with both penalties at the same time; Provided, That as soon as said complaint is filed, the court shall issue a restraining order to prevent the continuation of the activities or operations of the employer until the latter has been insured according to this chapter. The court, at its discretion, may impose the penalty of community services in lieu of the penalty of imprisonment.
The several departments of the government, boards, bureaus or commissions, and the municipal governments, shall include in their annual and special budgets the total amount of premiums required by the Manager of the State Fund to insure their employees; Provided, That in the case of premiums owed by any municipal government, the Secretary of the Treasury shall, at the request of the Manager of the State Fund, withhold the amount of the premiums which must be paid to the State Fund from any remittance that is to be made to said municipality; Provided, further, That in case any municipality owes premiums corresponding to any years prior to 1941—42, the Secretary of the Treasury shall annually withhold, from any remittances to be made to said municipality, in addition to the amount of the new premiums, a sum equivalent to ten percent (10%) of the previous debt, until the said debt is fully paid.
History —Apr. 18, 1935, No. 45, p. 250, § 2; May 14, 1943, No. 162, p. 524, § 1; Apr. 12, 1948, No. 8, p. 16, § 1; June 22, 1957, No. 94, p. 439, § 2; June 25, 1959, No. 72, p. 204, § 1; May 29, 1963, No. 29, p. 44; Oct. 30, 1975, No. 17, p. 815; June 7, 1988, No. 41, p. 158; Feb. 15, 1996, No. 6, § 1; Sept. 8, 2004, No. 263, § 1; Sept. 16, 2004, No. 343, § 1; Dec. 22, 2006, No. 284, § 1; Aug. 1, 2008, No. 147, § 6.