History of workers compensation

Similarly, ancient Roman and Greek dynasties even enacted several similar laws to compensate workers for their injuries incurred on the job. These laws experienced a setback in the region of Europe as feudalism was practiced there. Under feudalism, the decision of whether to compensate or not and how much to compensate for worker’s injuries was dependant on the feudal lords.
In the initial period of Industrialization, workers were allowed to sue their employers for injuries experienced while on the job and these lawsuits were fell in the category of civil lawsuits. During this period, employers and employees use to reach an agreement regarding the amount of compensation that was needed to be paid to the employer, but if both parties used to fail to reach any agreements, the employee had the option of filing a civil lawsuit. Laws for workers’ compensation that were formal in nature were first introduced in the shape of sickness and accident laws and regulations and these laws were passed in the region of Germany during 1884. Formalization of workers’ compensation rules was enacted in the region of England during 1897 and the US followed their pursuit after witnessing the various benefits attained from such laws and these laws were limited to employees who were working at the federal level (Guyton, 1999). Later during the period of 1911, Wisconsin created workers’ compensation laws for the state and this system has become the base stone of workers’ compensation laws practiced today (Guyton, 1999). The ideology of laws coined by Wisconsin was to provide compensation to workers for injuries in a timely manner based on the severity of the injury and another purpose served by this system was to limit the liability of the employers. Similar to the laws created by Wisconsin, other states of the US followed the lead and these laws led to an increase in productivity as employers had to ensure that employees were safe and secure on the job. Due to these laws, employers started to bear the cost of injuries experienced by employees, and employees were well aware that employers will take extra measures to protect them. No major changes have occurred in the laws of workers’ compensation except the ADA (American Disability Act) (Guyton, 1999). According to this act, employers are required to provide special facilities to help disabled employees work in a secure manner and restrict employers from firing employees due to their disability.
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