Workmen’s Compensation laws

The most general evaluation in recent years was put forward by The Report of the National Commission on State Workmen s Compensation Laws (1972). 

The National Commission on State Workmen s Compensation Laws recommended insurance providers experience rate WC premiums to the maximum extent feasible. Historically, WC insurers have not used the accident experience of a small establishment to determine the establishment s price of WC insurance. Instead, they have combined the injury statistics for all workers within an industrial class and determined a so-called manual rate for WC coverage. The product of each worker s wage rate and the manual rate for his or her industrial class summed over all workers determines the total WC insurance premium for a small firm. As firm size increases insurers pay less attention to the average experience of the industrial class (the manual rate) and more attention to the safety record of the individual firm. Experience rating of insurance policies refers to the process of adjusting insurance prices... 

Oi, W. Y. (1973). "An Essay on Workmen s Compensation and Industrial Safety." In Supplemental Studies for the National Commission on State Workmen s Compensation Laws, Vol. 1. Washington, DC U.S. Government Printing Office, 41-106. 

These three common law defenses were eliminated after workers compensation laws were enacted by each state. Employers accepted this legislation because in order to collect compensation, employees had to waive their rights to sue. Employees accepted the legislation because it eliminated the requirement to sue the employer in order to collect compensation. By 1948, every state had passed workers compensation legislation. When those laws were passed they were referred to as workmen s compensation laws. Today, they are referred to as workers compensation laws. 

Workmen s compensation was started in Canada. Chief Justice of the Province of Ontario Sir William Bruder was appointed to inquire into the laws of other countries workmen s compensation. 

To amend and consolidate the laws relating to compensation for disablement caused by accidents to or industrial diseases contracted by workmen in the course of their employment or for death resulting from such accidents and diseases. (Workmen s Compensation Act, 1941, p. 2)... 

Following the decision in Young v. Bristol Aeroplane Company Limited [1944] 2 All ER 293 it became established that a workman was precluded from pursuing a claim at common law even where he did not know of his right to elect if he had in fact accepted weekly payments under the Workmen s Compensation scheme. The Workmen s Compensation insurance policies issued at that time indemnified the insured against his liability to pay compensation under the Workmen s Compensation Act, the Employer s Liability Act 1880 and the Factories Act 1846 or at common law in the event of personal injury to any employee arising out of and in the course of his employment. 

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