The contract is the rulebook
A seafarer's medical entitlements are written into the POEA Standard Employment Contract — the standard terms attached to every contract for work on an ocean-going ship, which the Supreme Court treats, with any collective bargaining agreement, as the law between the parties. Every provision below is quoted as the Court reproduced it in a decided case.
Section 20 sets out what the employer owes when a seafarer is hurt or falls ill during the term. As reproduced in Vergara v. Hammonia Maritime Services, Inc. (G.R. No. 172933, October 6, 2008, Second Division):
However, if after repatriation, the seafarer still requires medical attention arising from said injury or illness, he shall be so provided at cost to the employer until such time as he is declared fit or the degree of his disability has been established by the company-designated physician.
Treatment continues at home at the employer's cost — but only until a doctor chosen by the employer clears you or fixes a degree of disability. That assessment is the hinge of the claim.
What starts the clock: repatriation and the three-day rule
The first duty after a medical sign-off falls on the seafarer, and it is unforgiving. Again from Vergara:
For this purpose, the seafarer shall submit himself to a post-employment medical examination by a company-designated physician within three working days upon his return except when he is physically incapacitated to do so, in which case, a written notice to the agency within the same period is deemed as compliance. Failure of the seafarer to comply with the mandatory reporting requirement shall result in his forfeiture of the right to claim the above benefits.
Three working days. If you are too ill to travel, written notice to the agency within the same period counts as compliance — but that notice has to exist. The 2010 version of the contract, as reproduced in Bunayog v. Foscon Shipmanagement, Inc. (G.R. No. 253480, April 25, 2023, En Banc), adds a duty to report regularly to the company-designated physician on the dates that physician prescribes. Missed follow-ups are used against claimants.
While treatment runs, the contract provides an allowance. As reproduced in Pastrana v. Bahia Shipping Services (G.R. No. 227419, June 10, 2020, First Division):
In addition to the above obligation of the employer to provide medical attention, the seafarer shall also receive sickness allowance from his employer in an amount equivalent to his basic wage computed from the time he signed off until he is declared fit to work or the degree of disability has been assessed by the company-designated physician. The period within which the seafarer shall be entitled to his sickness allowance shall not exceed 120 days.
Grading: the schedule, and why a grade is not the last word
Compensation for a permanent disability is keyed to a schedule inside the contract. Section 20, as reproduced in Vergara, provides that a seafarer permanently disabled by injury or illness is compensated in accordance with the schedule of benefits enumerated in Section 32 of the Contract. That schedule runs from Grade 1, the most serious, down to Grade 14. We publish no figures from it: the amounts differ between contract versions and are often displaced by a collective bargaining agreement.
The grade is a starting point, not a ceiling. In Elburg Shipmanagement Phils., Inc. v. Quiogue, Jr. (G.R. No. 211882, July 29, 2015, Second Division), the Court restated the rule this way:
In Krestel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar (Krestel),[34] the Court clarified that under Section 32 of the POEA-SEC, only those injuries or disabilities that were classified as Grade 1 might be considered as total and permanent. However, if those injuries or disabilities with a disability grading from 2 to 14, hence, partial and permanent, would incapacitate a seafarer from performing his usual sea duties for a period of more than 120 or 240 days, depending on the need for further medical treatment, then he was, under legal contemplation, totally and permanently disabled.
The dates can matter as much as the diagnosis — the subject of the 120 and 240-day rule.
What “total and permanent” actually means
The phrase does not require anything catastrophic. The formulation the Court reproduced in Elburg, drawn from Maersk Filipinas Crewing Inc. v. Mesina, is:
Permanent disability is inability of a worker to perform his job for more than 120 days, regardless of whether or not he loses the use of any part of his body.
Total disability, on the other hand, means the disablement of an employee to earn wages in the same kind of work of similar nature that he was trained for, or accustomed to perform, or any kind of work which a person of his mentality and attainments could do.
A total disability does not require that the employee be completely disabled, or totally paralyzed. What is necessary is that the injury must be such that the employee cannot pursue his or her usual work and earn from it. A total disability is considered permanent if it lasts continuously for more than 120 days.
The same decision explains why: disability is measured by loss of earning capacity rather than by its medical significance. A back that is medically stable but cannot take a deck again is what the doctrine was built for.
If your own doctor disagrees
A second opinion is allowed. Going to the tribunal on the strength of it is not. In Philippine Hammonia Ship Agency, Inc. v. Dumadag (G.R. No. 194362, June 26, 2013, Second Division) the seafarer consulted four private doctors and sued without ever asking for the contractual referral; the Court dismissed his complaint, holding that without a binding third opinion the company physician's fit-to-work certification stands. Under Republic Act No. 12021, the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, that referral is now also a statutory step with a thirty-day deadline. Read what to do when the doctors disagree first.
Unlisted illnesses are not automatically excluded either. Section 20, as reproduced in Canuel v. Magsaysay Maritime Corporation (G.R. No. 190161, October 13, 2014, First Division), provides:
Those illnesses not listed in Section 32 of this Contract are disputably presumed as work related.
Disputably — the employer may still prove otherwise. Outcomes here turn on assessment dates, on whether an extension was justified, and on the referral procedure; in the cases above, some seafarers won and others lost on those points. Nothing here is advice on your claim. Book a consultation and bring your contract, your medical records and your repatriation date.
Frequently asked
What must a seafarer do in the first three days after repatriation?
Report for a post-employment medical examination by the company-designated physician. Section 20 of the POEA Standard Employment Contract, as reproduced by the Supreme Court in Vergara v. Hammonia Maritime Services, Inc. (G.R. No. 172933, October 6, 2008), requires the seafarer to submit himself to that examination within three working days upon his return, except when he is physically incapacitated, in which case written notice to the agency within the same period is deemed compliance. The same provision states that failure to comply with the mandatory reporting requirement results in forfeiture of the right to claim those benefits.
Does a Grade 11 assessment mean my claim is limited to Grade 11?
Not automatically. In Elburg Shipmanagement Phils., Inc. v. Quiogue, Jr. (G.R. No. 211882, July 29, 2015) the Court restated that only Grade 1 injuries are classified as total and permanent under Section 32 of the POEA-SEC, but that a Grade 2 to 14 impediment which incapacitates a seafarer from performing his usual sea duties for more than 120 or 240 days makes him, under legal contemplation, totally and permanently disabled. Whether that describes your own case depends on the assessment dates and the medical records.
My illness is not on the list in the contract. Is it still covered?
The contract itself supplies a presumption. Section 20 of the POEA-SEC, as reproduced in Canuel v. Magsaysay Maritime Corporation (G.R. No. 190161, October 13, 2014), provides that those illnesses not listed in Section 32 of the Contract are disputably presumed as work related. Disputably means the employer is allowed to prove otherwise, so the medical evidence still matters.
Am I paid anything while I am being treated at home?
The contract provides for a sickness allowance. As reproduced in Pastrana v. Bahia Shipping Services (G.R. No. 227419, June 10, 2020), the seafarer receives sickness allowance equivalent to his basic wage computed from the time he signed off until he is declared fit to work or the degree of disability has been assessed by the company-designated physician, and that period shall not exceed 120 days.