The labor insurance injury or sickness benefit is a wage subsidy provided to the insured persons who have lost wholly or partially the income when hospitalized and unable to continue working due to injury or sickness. In accordance with Article 33 of the Labor Insurance Act, in case an insured person is hospitalized and incapacitated from work due to ordinary injury or sickness and unable to receive the original salary/wages, he/she shall be entitled to claim injury or sickness benefits beginning from the fourth day on which he/she is incapacitated from work.
The BLI indicated that, on occasion, an insured person may, during the period of hospitalization, apply for special leave (or other types of leave) rather than ordinary injury or sickness leave. He/she has, as a result, received the original salary/wages for the leave period. Based on the Labor Standards Act, taking special leave is the right of a worker. An insured person, therefore, should still be entitled to claim the ordinary injury or sickness benefits if he/she applies for special leave during the period of injury or sickness and has not received the wage for the period, which is still considered a loss of the “original salary”.
The BLI gives a further reminder to those insured persons who apply for special leaves during the period of hospitalization. To enable the BLI to confirm if the insured person has lost his/her salary/wages when hospitalized and incapacitated from work, the insured person should, when filling in the “Labor Insurance Injury or Sickness Benefits Application Form and Benefit Receipt”, tick “The insured has received his/her original salary or remuneration” under the column of “The status of receiving the salary (remuneration) when the insured is hospitalized and incapacitated from work”, and subsequently tick “Special Leave” thereunder. The BLI will review and approve the payment accordingly. For further details, please find related explanation in "
Benefit Eligibility" and the
application form.