All workers, irrespective of sex or other personal attributes, should be insured in case of an accident or disease resulting from employment. Convention No. 121 specifies that: National legislation concerning employment injury benefits shall protect all employees, including apprentices, in the public and private sectors, and co-operatives, and, in respect of the death of the breadwinner, prescribed categories of beneficiaries. The contingencies covered by the employment injury benefit system are:
(a) Medical care to maintain, restore or improve the ability to work;
(b) Incapacity for work involving suspension of earnings;
(c) Total or partial permanent loss of earning capacity;
(d) Loss of support suffered by dependants resulting from death.
In the case of incapacity for work, total loss of earning capacity or the death of a breadwinner, the benefit should be a periodical payment. These benefits should apply equally to women and men, but in practice, this is often not the case.
National policies and institutional mechanisms should aim at creating effective equality of treatment between women and men workers in this respect.