By: Rafael Mello

With the aim of bringing some legal certainty to this complex period that society is experiencing, the Special Secretariat for Social Security and Labor linked to the Ministry of Economy issued Technical Note SEI No. 56376/2020/ME, which sought to guide and clarify the analysis and configuration of the link between work and COVID-19.

In its analysis, the government agency reports that: “The Ministry of Health, through Ordinance No. 454 of March 20, 2020, declared the state of community transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, throughout the national territory. This means that, from that moment on, it would no longer be possible to associate each new case of COVID-19 with a previously confirmed case, which makes it extremely difficult to determine whether a worker had contact with the virus at home, on public transport, in the workplace or in another place they frequented.”[1]

Thus, the Secretariat concluded that contamination by Covid-19 can be recognized as an occupational disease when the disease results from the special conditions in which the work is performed or due to accidental contamination of the employee. Finally, it emphasizes that any of the hypotheses must be verified by the Federal Medical Expertise.

At this point, it is worth highlighting that even in cases where the employer issues a Work Accident Report – CAT, the social security body will not automatically adopt the benefit in the form of accident-related sickness benefit, given the express determination that only a medical examination may determine the link between the illness and work.

It is worth noting that this technical note directly contradicts the guidance issued by the Public Ministry of Labor through another technical note, already detailed in our previous articles, which established the suggestion of issuing a Work Accident Report for all cases in which there was contamination by COVID-19.

Therefore, it is important to monitor employees who have been absent due to COVID-19, as if the absence due to an occupational illness is recognized, this absence will have an impact on FGTS payments, stability periods, among other ancillary obligations.

[1]COVID-19. Link with work in light of Social Security legislation. Provisional Measure No. 927, of 2020. Document available at: https://www.gov.br/economia/pt-br/centrais-de-conteudo/publicacoes/notas-tecnicas/2020/sei_me-12415081-nota-tecnica-covid-ocupacional.pdf Accessed on 12/15/2020 at 4:56 p.m.