Aside from the contributions employers were required to pay, the Mutual insurance scheme was funded temporarily, for a period up to 31 December 2012, by a surcharge paid by insured "workers" to the Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale - CCSS).
An insured "worker" is considered to be an employee who, when the law introducing a single status for private-sector employees entered into force, did not benefit from the continuation of the wage payment for at least the month of incapacity for work and the three subsequent months. The term also applies to employees hired after the aforementioned date, who mainly carry out manual work.
When hiring a new employee, the employer had to assess whether the role should be classed as manual work, based on the nature of the work. If the employer decided it was a manual activity, the CCSS assumed they had withheld the surcharge from their employee's income at a rate of 2.1 % between 2009 and 2011 and 1 % in 2012 and so collected the contribution from the employer.
It should be noted that, even if the company was exempt from compulsory affiliation of the Mutual insurance scheme, the employer had to withhold a surcharge from their insured "worker's" income.
The CCSS did not collect any surcharge from the income of "workers":
- in private households
- of State public-sector employers whose workers benefited from the continuation of their wage payment indefinitely