Section Contents:
3.-(1) Subject to this Act, every person who on or after the appointed day,
being over the age of fourteen years and under the age of sixty-five years, is
employed in insurable employment shall become insured under this Act:
Persons to be insured.
Provided that the Minister may by Order published in the Gazette prescribe
that persons in any employment specified in such Order shall, not-withstanding
that they are over the age of sixty-five years, be insurable against employment
injury and against prescribed diseases for such length of time and on such
conditions as the Minister may specify in that Order. 9 of 1982.
(2) For the purpose of this Act, every employment specified in Part I of the
First Schedule shall be an insurable employment, unless it is an excepted
employment, that is to say, an employment specified in Part II of that Schedule.
First Schedule Part I. Part II.
(3) Regulations may provide for-
(a) the inclusion or exception of specified classes of persons for all or any
specified purposes of this Act;
(b) the classification of insured persons;
(c) treating as the employment of an employed person any employment outside
Belize in continuation of insurable employment in Belize;
(d) treating for the purposes of this Act or of such provisions thereof as
may be prescribed the employment of any person as-
(i) continuing during periods of holiday, incapacity for work or such other
circumstances as may be prescribed;
(ii) ceasing in such circumstances as may be prescribed.-
First Schedule.
(4) The Minister may by Order repeal, vary or amend all or any of the
provisions of the First Schedule.
Voluntary insurance.
4.-(1) Subject to the regulations, any insured person who is not liable to
pay contribution shall be entitled to apply to and receive from the Manager a
certificate of voluntary insurance if he satisfies the prescribed conditions.
(2) A certificate of voluntary insurance may be canceled by the Manager if
the person concerned fails to pay contribution within the prescribed conditions
for voluntary insurance.
(3) Regulations may provide for-
(a) the conditions under which a person who ceases to be liable to pay
contribution may be entitled to receive a certificate of voluntary insurance;
(b) the rate of contribution payable by a person specified in paragraph (a);
(c) the type and rate of benefit and the conditions for entitlement to such
benefit.
5.-(1) For the purpose of this Act contributions shall, subject to this Act,
be payable by insured persons and by employers.
Source of funds.
(2) Regulations shall provide for fixing, from time to time, the rates of
contribution to be paid by such different classes of insured persons and
employers as may be prescribed provided that the total contribution in respect
of any one insured person shall not exceed ten per centum of his wages.
6.-(1) Except where regulations otherwise provide, an employer liable to pay
contribution in respect of a person employed by him shall, in the first
instance, be liable to pay also, on behalf of and to the exclusion of that
person, any contribution as an insured person payable by that person for the
same contribution period, and for the purposes of this Act, contributions paid
by an employer on behalf of an insured person shall be deemed to be
contributions by the insured person.
Contributions by insured persons and
employers.
(2) Notwithstanding any contract to the contrary, an employer shall not be
entitled to deduct from the wages or other remuneration of a person employed by
him, or otherwise to recover from such person, the employer’s contribution in
respect of that person.
(3) Subject to this Act, an employer shall be entitled to recover from an
insured person employed by him the amount of any contribution paid or to be paid
by him on behalf of that person, and notwithstanding anything in any enactment,
such amount may be deducted from the insured person’s wages or remuneration.
(4) No deduction permitted under subsection (3) shall be made from any wages
other than such as relate to the period or part of the period in respect of
which the contribution is payable, or in excess of the sum representing the
employee’s contribution for the period.
Persons to be treated as
employers.
7.-(1) In relation to persons who-
(a) are employed by more than one employer in any contribution week; or
(b) work under the general control or management of some person other than
their immediate employer,
and in relation to any other cases for which it appears to the Minister that
special provision is needed, regulations may provide that for the purposes of
this Act the prescribed person shall be treated as their employer.
(2) Regulations made under subsection (1) may provide for adjusting the
rights between themselves of the person prescribed as the employer, the
immediate employer and the persons employed.
Exceptions from liability for and crediting
of contributions.
8. Regulations may provide for-
(a) excepting insured persons from liability to pay for such periods as may
be prescribed, contributions for periods-
- (i) of incapacity for work;
- (ii) of full time unpaid apprenticeship;
- (iii) when they are not in receipt (or are deemed in accordance with
regulations not to be in receipt) of an income exceeding a prescribed amount;
(b) crediting contributions in specified circumstances to insured persons for
periods for which they are excepted from liability to pay contributions under
paragraph (a).
9.-(1) Where by regulations made under this Act contributions are payable by
means of insurance stamps, such stamps shall be prepared and issued in such
manner as the Board may direct and the Board may arrange with the Ministry
responsible for the Post Office for the sale of insurance stamps through any
post office.
Issue and sale of stamps and payment of
contribution by other methods.
(2) Regulations may provide for applying, with the necessary adaptations as
respects insurance stamps, any of the provisions (including penal provisions) of
the Stamp Duties Act or of any other enactment relating to stamps.
CAP. 64.
(3) Where regulations permit contributions to be paid at the option of the
person liable to pay by a method other than by means of insurance stamps and
that method involves greater expense in administration to the Fund than would be
incurred if the contributions were paid by means of insurance stamps, such
regulations may provide for the payment to the Fund by any person who adopts
such method, and for the recovery on behalf of the Fund, of the prescribed fees
in respect of the difference in the expenses in administration.
General provisions as to payment and
collection of contributions
10. Subject to this Act, regulations may provide for any matter relating or
incidental to the insurability of persons under this Act and such regulations
may provide for-
(a) the registration of employers, employed persons and other persons liable
to be insured under this Act;
(b) the payment and collection of contributions by means of insurance stamps,
in cash or by any other method and the time within which contributions are to be
paid, and without prejudice to any other provisions in this Act relating to
unpaid contributions, the rate of interest which shall be payable in respect of
contributions not paid within the prescribed time;
(c) securing that liability to contribution is not avoided or reduced by a
person following in the payment of wages or other form of remuneration, any
practice which is abnormal for the employment in respect of which wages or other
remuneration is paid;
(d) the maintenance of registers and records and the particulars to be shown
in such documents;
(e) requiring employers and other persons to supply to the Board, in such
form and manner as may be required or prescribed, records of wages and
contributions paid, and such information as may be required to determine
liability to contribution;
(f) the issue, sale, custody, production, inspection and delivery of books or
cards used for the purpose of registration, contribution or benefit and for the
replacement of any such documents lost, destroyed or defaced;
(g) treating for the purpose of any right to a benefit contributions paid
after the due dates as having been paid on such dates as may be prescribed, or
as not having been so paid;
(h) treating as paid, for the purpose of any right to a benefit,
contributions payable by an employer on behalf of an insured person but not
paid, when the failure to pay is shown not to have been with the consent or
connivance of or attributable to any negligence on the part of the insured
person;
(i) treating contributions of the wrong class or category or at the wrong
rate as paid on account of contributions properly payable;
(j) the return of contributions paid either in error or in such circumstances
that under any provision of this Act they fall to be repaid subject to the
deduction of any amount of a benefit paid as a result of such contributions.
