P.R. Laws tit. 11, § 1a
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in Article II, § 16 of its Bill of Rights, acknowledges the right of every employee to protection against risks to his/her health in his/her work or employment. It may be construed that this right provides the inclusion of a social security system for the employee for injuries sustained at the workplace. For that reason, the Legislature acknowledges the principle that the risk of sustaining work-related accidents is a fundamental risk which necessarily requires government action. As it has been to the present, this government action must be based on the theory of the social contract, which consists of a fair and equal adjustment of the interests of both the employers and employees, by which both receive important benefits in exchange for the free exercise of their traditional rights or prerogatives. Workers, to a certain extent, waive their right to sue their employer in exchange for a benefit which could eventually be smaller, but which is reliable, immediate and certain. In order for the social contract to be favorable to the best interests of the worker, it is the intent and policy of the Legislature to offer all employees within the system the best and most comprehensive protection against work-related risks. To obtain the resolute collaboration of the employers regarding such maximum protection within the system, it is necessary to reduce to a minimum any costly litigations outside the system, thus acknowledging the principle upon which the contract is based by which the benefits provided internally by the system make up the financial substitute of the legal remedy.
The public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico continues to favor a compensation system based on the principle of absolute legal responsibility. However, the same should be redirected in order to face the new social and economic realities of our modern society, considering the new challenges and problems under different perspectives with more effective remedies, so as to be able to update and improve the protection that should be offered to the Puerto Rican worker. As part of such a commitment, the following principles constitute part of the public policy of this chapter:
(a) Aware of the fact that no system is able to mitigate the suffering nor totally compensate for the financial and social loss caused by work-related injuries, it is of vital importance to develop vigorous and efficient programs within the system for the prevention of work-related accidents and occupational illness. The adoption of such preventive measures, through the establishment of specialized structures leading to the attainment of said purposes, constitutes an essential part of the public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(b) The injured worker should be guaranteed the best and fastest treatment that medical science is capable of providing, so that he/she may be able to return to his/her regular employment, totally recovered from the injury, within the shortest period of time possible. If it is not possible to achieve this primary objective because of permanent physical or mental impairment, it is indispensable to establish individual vocational rehabilitation programs, provided with the best and most advanced techniques developed in this field and with the proper financial incentives so that the worker may successfully take the maximum advantage of the rehabilitation program and thus return to the employment market without any loss of income; or, if this should be inevitable, that such a loss of income be the least amount possible. The vocational rehabilitation of the worker should start as soon as the injury occurs and should comprise not only the vocational rehabilitation and retraining plans, but also re-employment and occupational placement programs.
(c) The financial protection or compensation that may be provided by the system should offer workers the best benefits. This includes, in the first place, providing financial aid to the worker during the total transitory disability period, so that he/she may be able to support himself/herself and comply with his/her basic obligations until he/she is ready to resume his/her previous job or a similar one and until his/her regular income from his/her employment is re-established.
The permanent financial compensation provided by the system should first cover the worker’s loss of income, reserving the compensation for the resulting physical disability only for the most critical cases.
Finally, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico recognizes that implementing and developing the above stated public policy requires fundamental changes in the bodies that will be most affected by the updating of our system in order to insure its proper functioning. To such effect, the creation of the State Insurance Fund Corporation and an Industrial-Medical Board is hereby provided, with the responsibility of establishing quality and excellence criteria with regard to the service to be rendered by said corporation to the insured persons. Likewise, it restructures the Industrial Commission to harmonize its functioning with that of the aforementioned bodies. It is also essential that the results obtained with these changes be subject to an ongoing evaluation process by the Legislature in order to effect all those amendments and adjustments that may be construed as necessary to correct adverse or unsatisfactory results in the chapter. Upon the culmination of the reform process of the system through this joint effort, the objectives which constitute the public policy of the Commonwealth in the area of protection of our working class in those cases of work-related injuries should be fully attained.
History —Apr. 18, 1935, No. 45, p. 250, added as § 1A on Oct. 29, 1992, No. 83, § 1.