CMNT_TITLE

Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) - Switzerland (RATIFICATION: 1977)

Other comments on C102

Observation

Direct Request

Replies received to the issues raised in a direct request which do not give rise to further comments

2023

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Part VI (Employment injury benefit). With reference to its previous observation, the Committee notes, according to the 39th annual report by Switzerland on the application of the European Code of Social Security, the entry into force on 1 January 2017 of the first revision of the Act on accident insurance (LAA), which has brought the national legislation into conformity with international law in relation to the deletion of the second phrase of subsection 3 of section 10 of the LAA on care provided at home and the repeal of subsections 2 and 5 of section 29 of the LAA, under which the entitlement to benefit of the surviving spouse was made subject to conditions that were too restrictive. Among the other new features introduced by the revision, the Government emphasizes that it resolves the problem of over-entitlement to benefit by limiting annuities paid for life to when the beneficiary reaches the pensionable age in order to prevent a person with an invalidity from benefitting from a privileged situation in financial terms in relation to a person who has not suffered an injury. The Committee observes that this logic is contrary to the Convention, which grants a person with an invalidity as a result of an employment accident or occupational disease a higher benefit than for other contingencies, such as old age or general invalidity, irrespective of the beneficiary’s age and throughout the contingency, which means for life in the case of permanent invalidity. Furthermore, a person protected under Part VI of the Convention benefits from a privileged situation in relation to the level of protection offered by other Parts of the Convention through the total elimination of the qualifying period for access to benefits and of any limitation on the maximum duration of the provision of the benefit, including the duration of the medical care necessary to preserve the health of the person protected without any expense for the latter. Nor does the Convention authorize any reduction or refusal of employment injury benefit on the basis of the age of the insured person. In relation to these provisions of the Convention, the Committee notes that, in accordance with section 20 (2ter) of the LAA, when the insured person reaches the ordinary pensionable age, the annuity for invalidity and the supplementary annuity, including cost-of-living allowances, are reduced for each full year between the day on which the beneficiary reached the age of 45 years and the day on which the accident occurred, by 40 per cent as a maximum. Section 18(1) goes further by providing that the insured person is no longer entitled to an annuity for invalidity when the accident occurs after the ordinary pensionable age. With regard to medical care, section 19(1) provides that entitlement to medical care ceases when the insured person becomes entitled to the annuity. The Committee observes that the provisions of the LAA, as amended by its first revision, do not appear to be in conformity with the provisions of the Code referred to above. It therefore requests the Government to provide information on the manner in which effect is given to Part V1 of the Convention.