Compensation in respect of occupational diseases

(1) Where a registered medical practitioner, grants a certificate, (a) that a workman is suffering from a scheduled disease causing disablement or that the death of a workman was caused by any scheduled disease; and (b) that such disease was due to the nature of the workman’s employment and was contracted within twenty-four months previous to the date of such disablement or death, the workman or, if he is deceased, his dependants, shall be entitled to claim compensation under this Act as if the disablement or death had been caused by an accident, and this Act shall, mutatis mutandis, apply unless at the time of entering into the employment the workman wilfully and falsely represented, in writing to the employer, in reply to a specific question, that he had not previously suffered from the scheduled disease, but in no event shall the workman or his dependants be entitled to compensation in respect of any causation or aggravation of the disease which was due to employment outside Belize except in respect of a workman belonging to Belize, employed outside Belize, by his employer within Belize. (2) If on the hearing of an application for compensation in terms of subsection (1) of this section, the court is satisfied on the evidence that the allegations in the certificate are correct, the workman or his dependants, as the case may be, shall be entitled to compensation under this Act as if the contracting of the disease were an injury or accident arising out of and in the course of the workman’s employment.