The Employers' Liability/Workmen's Compensation Debate of the 1890s Revisited
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8958657 |
|---|---|
| Authors | V Markham Lester (Birmingham–Southern College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 471-495 |
| Publication date | 2001-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Historical Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0018246x01001856 |
| OpenAlex | W2058276457 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Historians have praised Joseph Chamberlain's workmen's compensation act of 1897, the foundation of Britain's modern insurance-based compensation scheme for on-the-job injuries, as a forward-looking social programme of great benefit to workers. By contrast, the Liberals' support of the option of potential unlimited employer liability for worker injuries has been viewed as unimaginative and a failure of political leadership at a crucial juncture in the history of the Liberal party's relationship with labour. This article re-examines the employers' liability/workmen's compensation debate of the 1890s, arguing that historians' criticism of the Liberals' position stems from a misunderstanding that the crux of the debate was over the method of fair compensation. To the contrary, as this article demonstrates, the real issue was workplace safety. Far from being caught napping, Liberals strenuously argued the workers' long-held position that workplace safety, that is, the prevention of accidents, was much more important than compensation after the accident occurred and that Chamberlain's compensation scheme would do nothing to improve safety. Significantly, this article reveals that the Liberals were correct in that, while employers immediately gained protection from unlimited liability at minimal cost, worker safety, in fact, did not improve and may have even declined during the first decade of the act's operation
Business · Compensation (psychology · Criticism · Economics · Law and economics · Liability · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Workers' compensation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Finance · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2024 (11) |
| Highly cited | No |