Short answer. Your employer does, and its failure does not cost you the benefit. Article 196 says a failure or refusal to remit contributions shall not prejudice the employee's right, and makes an employer whose worker was never reported liable to the System for the lump sum equivalent of the benefits due.

What the law says

Failure or refusal of the employer to pay or remit the contribution herein prescribed shall not prejudice the right of the employee or his dependents to the benefits under this Title.

Labor Code, Article 196 — Delinquent Employer Contributions. Read the full provision →

The employer's default is not your problem

This is the sentence to hold on to, and it is written without qualification. Whether contributions were remitted, whether your name ever reached the System, and whether your employer was registered at all, are matters between the employer and the System. They do not travel to you. Workers in your position are frequently told the opposite — that nothing can be claimed because nothing was ever paid in — and the article is a direct answer to that. The right to benefits is not made to depend on the employer having complied.

Who ends up carrying the cost

The article routes the money rather than cancelling it. Where the sickness, injury, disability or death occurs before the System receives any report of the employee's name, the employer becomes liable to the System for the lump sum equivalent to the benefits to which the employee or his dependents may be entitled. So the benefit is not written off; the delinquent employer is made to fund it. The same provision makes an employer delinquent in contributions liable to the System for benefits it has already paid out to that employer's workers.

A lien preferred to almost everything

To make that liability collectable, the article gives it teeth. Any benefit and expenses for which the employer is liable constitute a lien on all his property, real or personal, declared preferred to any credit except taxes. That is a strong priority, and it exists because unreported workers are commonly found in businesses that are undercapitalised or on the way out. It is worth knowing that the law anticipated the employer who has nothing to pay with, and did not simply leave the worker to find out too late.

What to establish first

Everything turns on proving you were employed, since that is the fact your employer's records do not reflect. Gather anything showing the relationship and its dates: a contract or appointment paper, payslips, pay envelopes, identification cards, rosters, messages assigning you work, or the names of co-workers who can say you were there. Then secure the medical records and any incident report from the injury itself. Take those to a lawyer together — the missing name in the System's records is the employer's failing, and this article says so.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.