Return To Work: Not Just Compensation
Eileen See spoke to Dr. Mohammed Azman bin Aziz Mohammed, Senior General Manager of Operations of Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) on his organisation’s latest programme for members - the Return To Work (RTW) programme.
A medical doctor by profession with nine years of experience in SOCSO, Dr Azman said said the main function of this programme is disability management through promotion and intervention to prevent accident or disease.
“We provide rehabilitation to help injured workers go back to work. Basically, we are talking about prevention before rehabilitation and rehabilitation before compensation. Compensation can only give temporary financial support but not economic empowerment. We want injured workers to be independant and functional. So we have to get all interested parties to work with us to change mindsets, to have a paradigm shift,” he explained.
The RTW programme is new in Malaysia, though it has been practised in Australia for 65 years and in Europe for more than 50 years.
Why the sudden interest for Malaysia?
Dr Azman said, “Malaysia focuses so much on compensation and doesn’t look at the other aspect of rehabilitation. We should encourage our workers, not only compensate. We should look at the ABILITY and not the DISABILITY.”
The RTW programme was initiated on 15 January 2007 and has seen a success rate of 79% for the first six months of year 2009.
“We are looking at the insured person in total, not just at the compensation aspect. See if he can improve his ability prior to injury. For example if he loses one leg, we provide him with a prothesis and get him to walk. The compensation aspect is only to supplement the insured persons’ income until he is ready to return to his everyday duties.
After his injury he can go back to work, can earn a living to support his family. What SOCSO pays in compensation is not 100% of what he used to earn, it is always less. Compensation alone is not a total replacement of income. It only covers the loss of earning capacity. Seeing the current economic situation, compensation alone is definitely not enough,” Dr Azman stressed.
He added, “If an insured person goes for invalidity pension due to his illness, once certified invalid, he can still work but cannot earn more than 1/3 of what he used to earn. If his earnings exceed this amount, the pension is stopped. The pension is only 50 to 60 percent of his drawn salary depending on the number of contributions the worker makes to SOCSO.” (The Employees’ Social Security Act 1969 defines salary at a maximum of RM3000.)
Dr Azman threw his hands up.
“So why should you go on 50% of what you used to earn, when we can provide rehabilitation programmes, vocational training, or alternative jobs and give you back your previous earning capacity?”
According to Dr Azman, the top five work-related injuries are musculoskeletal diseases (MSDs) which includes injuries to the upper or lower limb, back pain, shoulder or knee sprain. Followed by other occuapational diseases such as hearing impairment due to noise exposure, skin disease or irritation.
“SOCSO does have safety guidelines and health programmes. We work with NGOs to educate companies how to prevent accidents. So far, we have produced 10 videos on office safety, agriculture industry and also ergonomic practices. These videos can be purchased by companies, so their workers can be informed and protected.”
When asked about how SOCSO would determine if a case is genuine, Dr Azman nodded knowingly.
“In insurance business there are a lot of frauds. Here we always give the claimants the benefit of the doubt. If there is documentation, supporting medical reports, it is then taken as information to process and award compensation. However, if there are complains that the claim is not genuine, we will investigate.”
Vital question: Does SOCSO have an employees with disabilities?
“Yes, we have a Case Manager who is visually impaired, some of the senior management uses crutches and there are some employees with mental problems who are on medication. We have to set an example, don’t we?” Dr Azman gave a charismatic smile.
There are plans to expand the RTW programme nationwide, at the request of Datuk Dr. S. Subramaniam, Minister of Human Resources.
Said Dr Azman with full enthusiasm, “We are going to employ 25 more Case Managers (currently there are 10) and expand to the whole of Malaysia. We also hope to get more injured workers who claimed for invalidity to come into this programme.”
Dr Azman also stresses a lot on employer support. “Companies do not see the value of experienced workers. They should retain experienced workers even though injured because new workers cost in terms of time and training for experience.”
What is the most expensive item SOCSO has ever paid out for under its programmes?
“Well, SOCSO has paid for a motorised wheelchair, which can cost up to RM9000. But the cost of the equipment does not matter, if we have to spend more money to help a disabled person be independent, that itself is a success.”
For Dr Azman, the glass of water is obviously half-full.
Any other updates besides the expansion of RTW? “There are plans for a rehab centre in Malacca which will be a one stop centre providing physical and vocational rehabilitation, components of case management and Return To Work in the same area. It should be ready by 2012.”
What is his take home message for today?
“We have to get employers and workers to understand this programme. It is not easy to get companies in. Many companies do not want to re-employ disabled workers. This, is our challenge.”
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