Compensation Injury

At the beginning of the 20th century the state began regulating the compensation of injury. There was “rapid growth and a drift towards highly concentrated forms of corporate production. This economic change, and the addition of over 2.2 million immigrants between 1903 and 1912, transformed the nature and position of class forces in Canadian society.” (pg. 36) This meant it was becoming more prevalent that injured workers under regular law weren’t receiving any compensation and in turn creating situations of poverty. The regulation brought in support for the injured worker in the form of lost earnings as well as medical and rehabilitation specific to injuries that occurred from their employment with their company. When this was developed and put into place in the 20th century, people were no longer able to place blame and sue their respective companies; fault was not a factor in determining claims as all employers had to pay premiums. It wasn’t just the growing worker pressure that saw regulation, there was also the advantage from the employer perspective that included things such as liability protection and increased predictability in compensation cost. (pg. 36-37) It was also found through research that it was necessarily the employee or employer that was teh cause of accidents but instead due to structural factors. “This undermined the perception that the law of negligence was an appropriate way to compensation injury.”(pg .37) Then with having the employer on side with these changes to sytem as well it was attractive to governments trying to improve worker grievances. Not only did the worker and the employer have a influence on this regulation change in the 20th century but there was also a morale and political reasoning that made this change pass. “Workers’ compensation ameliorated a significant source of social instability by providing stable, predictable, and immediate compensation. In doing so, workers’ compensation allowed governments to diffuse pressure...