Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Workmen's Compensation (Accidents) Convention, 1925 (No. 17) - Panama (Ratification: 1958)

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Article 7 of the Convention. Provision of additional compensation to workers suffering employment injury when their condition requires the constant help of another person. The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that, under section 188 of Act 51 of 27 July 2005, amending the Basic Act on the Social Security Fund and establishing other provisions, social security beneficiaries cannot receive more than one pension or form of compensation at a time. The Committee recalls that, given its nature, the additional compensation envisaged in Article 7 of the Convention may suppose an increase in the pension initially awarded for incapacity arising from employment injury, and not only the provision of a new or different pension. The Committee therefore once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to enable the provision of additional compensation to workers suffering employment injury when their condition requires the constant help of another person.

The Committee also draws the Government’s attention to the recommendation of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group (SRM TWG), approved by the ILO Governing Body at its 328th Session (October-November 2016), that Member States for which Convention No. 17 is in force should be encouraged to ratify the more recent Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 [Schedule I amended in 1980] (No. 121), or to accept the obligations in Part VI of the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102). The Committee notes that the tripartite Higher Labour Council is due to be established in the future, with functions that include recommending the ratification of ILO Conventions. The Committee encourages the Government to take advantage of the potential momentum created by the establishment of the Higher Labour Council and to contemplate the possibility of ratifying Convention No. 121 or accepting the obligations in Part VI of Convention No. 102, as the most up-to-date instruments in this subject area.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.