The Workmen's Compensation Act

Abstract

IT will be within the recollection of most persons that the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1906 is an extension of a former statutory provision on the same subject. The first Workmen's Compensation Act was passed in the year 1897, and came into operation on the rst July 1898. That Act established a principle which was new to English jurisprudence, inasmuch as it imposed upon one person (the employer) an obligation to pay money to another person (the workman), apart from any contractual obligation, and apart from any tort or misfeasance on the part of the employer. That is to say, in cases where the relationship of employer and workman exists, the duty was and is cast upon the employer of compensating the workman, in part at least, for loss arising from misadventure or misfortune. The Act, in fact, made the employer an insurer of his workmen against accident, to the extent of half the workmen's wages, with a further provision for the dependents of the workman in case of death. This enactment was new both in itself and in its character. It constituted a departure from all previously accepted principles of. legislative reform; it initiated a new era in the relationship of employer and workmen. It actually compelled one class to part with its property in regulated proportions for the benefit of another