public services

Workers’ health program ailing

carlos lemos/la prensa

failing: The public health system’s occupational health division suffers from a lack of legal support, funding and enforcement.1108654

The occupational health division of the Caja de Seguro Social (CSS), which was set up to help protect workers from the risks present in their jobs, has fallen on hard times.

A lack of legal backing to validate their operations has thwarted the division from taking on businesses that violate regulations concerning occupational safety, a situation that has taken a toll on the health of workers throughout the country and strained the agency’s ability to allocate funds for its various programs.

Francisco Díaz Merida, a specialist in workers’ health, said that CSS facilities have reported a significant increase in on-the-job accidents, disabilities and deaths over the past decade.

Merida said this situation would not be reflected in CSS records, however, because many of the workers who receive care for work-related conditions at the CSS are often registered as patients suffering from common diseases.

"This is one of the reasons why the program did not take off, and has to be subsidized by about $150 million a year," added the official, who based this estimate on studies he has done for the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Panamanian Association of Occupational Medicine.

According to one CSS worker who preferred to remain anonymous, there are several reasons why workers with an occupational condition are not registered as such. One reason is that many workers with minor disabilities prefer that doctors treat them as they would someone with a common illness so as to avoid having to wait months to be reimbursed for the days they missed work.

Additionally, companies do not want to fill out the pages of professional risks facing their employees because they do not want to leave traces of the dangers involved in their activities.

And the average worker prefers to avoid problems with their employer.