Text of the provision
Art. 205. Record of death or disability. All employers shall keep a logbook to record chronologically the sickness, injury or death of their employees, setting forth therein their names, dates and places of the contingency, nature of the contingency and absences. Entries in the logbook shall be made within five days from notice or knowledge of the occurrence of the contingency. Within five days after entry in the logbook, the employer shall report to the System only those contingencies he deems to be work-connected. All entries in the employer’s logbook shall be made by the employer or any of his authorized official after verification of the contingencies or the employees’ absences for a period of a day or more. Upon request by the System, the employer shall furnish the necessary certificate regarding information about any contingency appearing in the logbook, citing the entry number, page number and date. Such logbook shall be made available for inspection to the duly authorized representative of the System. Should any employer fail to record in the logbook an actual sickness, injury or death of any of his employees within the period prescribed herein, give false information or withhold material information already in his possession, he shall be held liable for fifty percent of the lump sum equivalent of the income benefit to which the employee may be found to be entitled, the payment of which shall accrue to the State Insurance Fund. In case of payment of benefits for any claim which is later determined to be fraudulent and the employer is found to be a party to the fraud, such employer shall reimburse the System the full amount of the compensation paid.
Labor Code of the Philippines, Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended. Reproduced in full from the official enactment and verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings.
What this article means
Every employer must keep a logbook chronologically recording employees’ sickness, injury or death, with entries made within five days from notice of the event and a report to the System of work-connected contingencies within five days after entry; entries cover absences of a day or more and the logbook is open to the System’s inspection. An employer who fails to record, gives false information or withholds material information is liable for fifty percent of the lump sum equivalent of the employee’s income benefit, and an employer party to a fraudulent claim must reimburse the System the full compensation paid.
Questions about this provision
- Does my employer have to report every workplace injury to the System, or only some?
- My accident was never entered in the company logbook - what does my employer face?
Related provisions
- Article 203 — No Fees For Claims.
- Article 206 — Notice Of Contingency.
A note on article numbers. The articles of the Labor Code have been administratively renumbered, so the same provision is often cited under a different number. Supreme Court decisions write both, in the form “Article 297 [282]” — the new number first, the original in brackets. The text on this page is published under its original number, which is the numbering both source texts use. When citing, check which numbering your source follows.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.