Filing A Compensation Claim In China Has Some Similarities
A Compensation claim of China filing workers. China has now overtaken us as the world’s largest economy. China’s Workers Compensation system seems to be very complex. The system on paper looks very straightforward. There are five basic steps that are very similar to the US system:
- A claim is filed
- Diagnosis by an official health authority;
- Verification by the local labor and social security authorities that the diagnosed injury/illness is actually work-related;
- Assessment of the worker’s degree of disability as a result of the injury/illness; and
- Calculation by the social security authorities of the benefits to be paid.
After researching the information more thoroughly, one would have to say the Chinese system is very similar in many aspects to the US.
The one major difference in China is the collusion of the medical providers and the employers. It seems that corruption exists very heavily in this area. The social security system is tasked with adjusting the WC claims. There are no insurance carriers.
The four main compensable claim definitions are in some sense even more liberal than the US system. Definition #3 is sometimes denied by US carriers when the employee is on break.
- The contraction of an illness as a direct result of the employee’s working conditions.
- Injuries suffered during work hours and within the workplace, when the worker is the victim of violence or suffers an unexpected injury whilst carrying out their duties.
- Accidental injuries suffered before or after formal work hours and within workplace, due to activity considered preparation for work or conclusion of work.
- Injuries suffered in an accident when the employee is on a business trip or assigned to work outside of the work place, including cases where the body cannot be found.
The main reasons for a claim denial are:
- Intoxication by alcohol or drugs
- Employee is knowingly committing a crime.
- The employee deliberately self-harms or commits suicide.
- Cases where an employee does not die within 48 hours of the onset of sudden illness while at work – interesting that the employee must die within 48 hours to collect benefits.
There are corresponding grades for the severity of the disability due to injury. The levels of disability are: (by Grade)
- 1 to 4 indicate that the employee no longer has any ability to work; grades
- 5 and 6 signify that an employee has lost most of their ability to work
- 7 to 10 injuries are classified as partially disabled.
This is an example of a chart of benefits for an injured worker (click here) . The specific grades are determined by a description of each grade.
I am sure there are off-paper differences between the Chinese and American Workers Compensation systems. However, there are many striking similarities.
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