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EMPIRICISM (from Gr. Eµrretpor, skill...
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See also:EMPIRICISM (from Gr. Eµrretpor, skilled in, from sreipa, experiment)
, in See also:philosophy, the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-given data
.
It is opposed to all forms of intuitionalism, and holds that the mind is originally an See also:absolute See also:blank (tabula rasa), on which, as it were, sense-given impressions are mechanically recorded, without any See also:action on the See also:part of the mind
.
The See also:process by which the mind is thus stored consists of an infinity of individual impressions
.
The frequent or invariable recurrence of similar See also:series of events gives See also:birth in the mind to what are wrongly called "See also:laws "; in fact, these " laws " are merely statements of experience gathered together by association, and have no other See also:kind of validity
.
In other words from the empirical standpoint the statement of such a " See also:law " does not contain the word " must "; it merely asserts that such and such series have been invariably observed
.
In this theory there can strictly be no " See also:causation "; one thing is observed to succeed another, but observations cannot assert that it is " caused " by that thing; it is See also:post hoc, but not proper hoc
.
The See also:idea of necessary connexion is a purely See also:mental idea, an a priori conception, in which observation of empirical data takes no part; See also:empiricism in See also:ethics likewise does away with the idea of the absolute authority of the moral law as conceived by the intuitionalists
.
The moral law is merely a collection of rules of conduct based on an See also:infinite number of See also:special cases in which the convenience of society or its rulers has subordinated the inclination of individuals
.
The fundamental objection to empiricism is that it fails to give an accurate explanation of experience; individual impressions as such are momentary, and their connexion into a See also:body of coherent knowledge pre-supposes mental action distinct from See also:mere receptivity
.
Empiricism was characteristic of all See also:early See also:speculation in See also:Greece
.
During the See also:middle ages the empiric spirit was in See also:abeyance, but it revived from the See also:time of See also:Francis See also: In See also:medicine, the See also:term is applied to a school of physicians who, in the time of See also:Celsus and See also:Galen, advocated accurate observation of the phenomena of See also:health and disease in the belief that only by the collection of a vast See also:mass of instances would a true See also:science of medicine be attained . This point of view was carried to extremes by those who discarded all real study, and based their treatment on rules of thumb . Hence the See also:modern sense of empirical as applied to the guess See also:work of an untrained See also:quack or See also:charlatan . EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY, and WORKMEN'S See also:COMPENSATION ? The law of See also:England as to the liability of employers in respect of See also:personal injuries to their servants is regulated partly by the See also:common law and partly by See also:statute; but by the Employers' Liability See also:Act 188o, such exceptions have been grafted upon the common law, and by the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906, principles so See also:alien to the common law have been applied to most employments that it is impossible now to See also:present any view of this See also:branch of the law as a logical whole . All that can be done is to See also:state the nature of the liability at common law . 2 " Employ " comes through Fr. from See also:Lat . - implicare, to enfold, See also:Late Lat. to See also:direct upon something . the See also:extension of it effected by the Employers' Liability Act 188o, and the new liabilities introduced by later acts . At common law the liability of a See also:master is of a very limited See also:character . There is, of course, nothing to prevent a master and servant from providing by special See also:contract in any way they please for their mutual rights in cases of personal injury to the servant . In such cases the liability will depend upon the terms of the special contract . But apart from any special agreement, it may be broadly stated that a master is liable to his servants only for injuries caused by his own See also:negligence . Injuries to a servant may arise from See also:accident, from the nature of the service, or from negligence; and this negligence may be of the master, of another servant of the master, or of a stranger . If the injury is purely accidental the loss lies where it falls . If it arises from the nature of the service, the servant must See also:bear it himself; he has undertaken a service to which certain risks are necessarily incident; if he is injured thereby, it is the See also:fortune of See also:war, and no one can be made responsible . If the injury is caused by the negligence of a stranger, the servant has his See also:ordinary remedy against the wrong-doer or any one who is responsible as a See also:principal for the conduct of the wrong-doer . If it is caused by the negligence of a See also:fellow-servant, he likewise has his ordinary remedy against the actual wrong-doer; but, by virtue of what is known as the See also:doctrine of common employment, he cannot at common law make the master liable as a principal . The only See also:case (independently of modern legislation: see below) in which he can recover See also:damages from the master is where the injury has been caused by negligence of the 'master himself . A master is negligent if he fails to exercise that skill and care which, in the circumstances of the particular employment, are used by employers of ordinary skill and carefulness . If he himself takes part in the work, he must act with such skill and care as may reasonably be demanded of one who takes upon himself to do work of that kind . If he entrusts the work to other servants, he must be careful in their selection, and must not negligently employ persons who are incompetent . He must take proper care so to arrange the See also:system of work that his servants are not exposed to unnecessary danger . If tools or machinery are used, he must take proper care to provide such as are See also:fit and proper for the work, and must either himself see that they are maintained in a fit See also:condition or employ competent servants to do so for him . If he is See also:bound by statute to take precautions for the safety of his servants, he must himself see that that See also:obligation is discharged . For See also:breach of any of these duties a master is liable to his servant who is injured thereby, but his liability extends no further . That his obligations to a servant are so much less than to a stranger is chiefly due to the doctrine of common employment . As a See also:rule a master is responsible for the negligence of common his servant acting in the course of his employment; See also:mat. but, from about the middle of the loth See also:century, it became firmly rooted in the law that this principle did not apply where the See also:person injured was himself a servant of the master and engaged in a common employment with the servant guilty of the negligence . In effect this rule protects a master as against his servant from the consequences of negligence on the part of any other of his servants; to this there is no qualification except that, for the rule to apply, both the injured and the negligent servant must be acting in pursuance of a common employment . They must both be working for a common See also:object though not necessarily upon the same work . It is not easy to define precisely what constitutes a common employment in this sense, and there is peculiarly little judicial authority as to the limit at which work for the same employer ceases to be work in a common employment . It does not depend on difference in grade; all engaged in one business, from the manager to the apprentice, are within the rule . It does not depend on difference in work, if the work each is doing is part of one larger operation; all the servants of a railway See also:company, whether employed on the trains, or at the stations, or on the See also:line, are in a common employment . It does not necessarily depend on difference of locality; a servant who packs goods at the factory and a servant who unpacks them in the See also:shop may well be in a common employment . On the other See also:hand, it is not enough that the two servantsare working for the same employer, if there is nothing in common between them except that they are making See also:money for the same See also:man; apart from special circumstances, the crews of two See also:ships owned by the same company are probably not in common employment while navigating their respective ships . The test in each case must be derived from the view, invented by the courts, upon which the doctrine was based, namely, that the servant by entering upon the service consented to run all the risks incidental to it, including the See also:risk of negligence on the part of fellow-servants; if the relation between the two servants is such that the safety of the one may, in the ordinary course of things, be affected by the negligence of the other, that negligence must be taken to be one of the risks of the employment assented to by the servant, and both are engaged in a common employment .
In ninety-nine cases out of a See also:hundred it will be found that the doctrine is applicable, and the master protected from liability
.
It is thus seen that, in See also:general, no action will See also:lie against a master at the suit of his servant, unless the servant can prove personal negligence on the part of the master causing injury to the servant
.
And in such action the master may avail himself of those defences which he has against a stranger
.
He may rely upon contributory negligence, and show that the servant was himself negligent, and that, notwithstanding the negligence of the master, the injury was proximately caused by the negligence of the servant
.
Or (except in cases where the injury results from a breach of a statutory See also:duty) he may prove such facts as establish the See also:defence expressed in the See also:maxim, volenti non fit injuria ; that is, he may prove that the injured servant knew and appreciated the particular risk he was See also:running, and incurred it voluntarily with full understanding of its nature
.
Mere knowledge on the part of the servant, or even his continuing to work with knowledge, does not necessarily establish this defence; it must be knowledge of such a kind and in such circumstances that it can he inferred that the servant contracted to take the risk upon himself
.
The action at common law is subject to the general rule that personal actions See also:die with the person; except so far as the remedy for money loss caused by See also:death by negligence has been preserved in favour of a See also:husband or wife and certain near relatives, under See also:Lord See also: The employer was not liable to a servant for the negligence of a fellow-servant, and therefore, in most cases of injury, was not liable at all . It is not surprising that the condition of things thus brought about, partly by the growth of modern industry and partly by the decisions of the courts, caused See also:grave dissatisfaction . The See also:justice of the doctrine of common employment was vigorously called in question . In the result the Employers' Liability Act 188o was passed . The effect of this act is to destroy the defence of common employment in certain specified cases . It does not abolish the doctrine altogether, nor, on the other hand, -does it impose upon the master any new See also:standard of duty which does not exist as regards strangers . All that it does is to See also:place the servant, in certain cases, in the position of a stranger, making the master liable for the negligence of his servants notwithstanding the fact that they are in common employment with the servant injured . It is still necessary under the act, as at common law, to prove negligence, and the master may still rely upon the defences of contributory negligence and volenti non fit injuria . But under the act he cannot, as against the workmen who come within it and in the cases to which it applies, set up the defence that the negligence complained of was the negligence of a servant in a common employment . The act does not apply to all servants . It does not apply to domestic or See also:menial servants, or to See also:seamen, or to any except railway servants and " any person who, being a labourer, servant in husbandry, journeyman, artificer, handicraftsman, miner, or otherwise engaged in See also:manual labour ... has entered into or See also:works under a contract with an employer, whether the contract be oral or in See also:writing, and be a contract of service or a contract personally to execute any work or labour." Whether a servant, not being one of those specially named, is within the act depends on whether manual labour is-the real and substantial employment, or whether it is merely Common law . incidental thereto; thus a carman who handles the goods he carries may be within the act, but a tramcar See also:driver or an See also:omnibus conductor is not . The act does not make the master liable for the negligence of all his servants, but, speaking generally, only for the negligent See also:discharge of their duties by such as are entrusted with the supervision of machinery and plant, or with superintendence, or the See also:power of giving orders, with the addition, in the case of a railway, of the negligence of those who are given the See also:charge or control of signals, points, See also:locomotive engines or trains . The cases dealt with by the act are five in number; in the first and See also:fourth the words are wide enough to include negligence of the employer himself, for which, as has been seen, he is liable at common law . In such instances the workman has an alternative remedy either at common law or under the act, but in all other respects the rights given by the act are new, being limitations upon the defence of common employment, and can be enforced only under the act . The first case is where the injury is caused by See also:reason of any defect in the condition of the ways, works, machinery or plant connected with or used in the business of the employer, provided that such defect arises from, or has not been discovered or remedied owing to the negligence of the employer, or of some person in the service of the employer and entrusted by him with the duty of seeing that the ways, works, machinery or plant are in proper condition . The second case is where the injury is caused by reason of the negligence of any person in the service of the employer who has any superintendence entrusted to him (that is, a person whose See also:sole or principal duty is that of superintendence, and who is not ordinarily engaged in manual labour) whilst in the exercise of such superintendence . The third case is where the injury is caused by reason of the negligence of any person in the service of the employer to whose orders or directions the workman at the time of the injury is bound to conform and does conform, where such injury results from his so conforming . The fourth case is where the injury is caused by reason of the act or omission of any person in the service of the employer done or made in obedience to the rules or by-laws of the employer, or in obedience to particular instructions given by any person delegated with the authority of the employer in that behalf, provided that the injury results from some impropriety or defect in such rules, by-laws or instructions . The fifth case is where the injury is caused by reason of the negligence of any person in the service of the employer who has the charge or control of any See also:signal, points, locomotive See also:engine or See also:train upon a railway . In all these cases it is provided that the employer shall not be liable if it can be shown that the workman knew of the defect or negligence which caused his injury, and failed within a reason-able time to give, or cause to be given, See also:information thereof to the employer or some person See also:superior to himself in the service of the employer, unless he was aware that the employer or such superior already knew of the said defect or negligence . It was inevitable that these provisions should See also:call for judicial See also:interpretation, and a considerable body of authority has grown up about the act . Where general words are used, it must always occur that, between the cases which are obviously within and those which are obviously without the words, there are many on the border line . Thus, under the act, the courts have been called upon to determine the precise meaning of " way," " works," " machinery," " plant," and to say what is precisely meant by a " defect " in the condition of each of them . They have had to say what is included in " railway " and in " train, " what is meant by having " charge " or "control," and to what extent one whose principal duty is superintendence may participate in manual labour without losing his character of See also:superintendent, and what is the precise meaning of negligence in superintendence . These are only illustrations of many points of detail which, having called for judicial interpretation, will be found fully dealt with in the See also:text-books on the subject . A workman who, being within the act, is injured by such negligence of a fellow-servant as is included in one or other of the five cases mentioned above, has against his employer the remedies which the act gives him . These are not necessarily the same as those which a stranger would have in the like circumstances; the amount of compensation is not See also:left at large for a See also:jury to deter-mine, but is limited to an amount not exceeding such sum as may be found to be See also:equivalent to the estimated earnings, during the three years preceding the injury, of a person in the same gradeemployed during those years in the like employment and in the See also:district in which the workman is employed at the time of the injury . Moreover, the right to recover is hedged about with technicalities which are unknown at the common law; proceedings must be taken in the See also:county See also:court, within a strictly limited time, and are maintainable only if certain elaborate provisions as to See also:notice of injury have been complied with . Where the injury causes death the action is maintainable for the benefit of the like persons as are entitled under Lord Campbell's act in an action at common law . The law continued in this condition up to 1897 . In the See also:majority of cases of injury to a servant, the doctrine of common employment still protected the master; and where, under the Employers' Liability Act, it failed to do so, the liability was of a limited character and often, owing to technicalities of See also:procedure, difficult to enforce . Moreover, there is nothing in the act to prevent master and servant from entering into any special con-See also:tract they please; and in many trades it became a common practice for contracts to be made wholly excluding the operation of the act . In 18193 an See also:attempt was made to alter the law by a See also:total abolition of the defence of common employment, so as to make a master as liable to a servant as to a stranger for the negligence of any of his servants acting in the course of their employment, and at the same time to prohibit any agreements to forego the rights so given to the servant . The See also:bill did not become law, and no further See also:change was made until, in 1897, See also:parliament took the first step in what has been a See also:complete revolution in the law of employers' liability . Up to that See also:year, as has been seen, the See also:foundation of a master's liability was negligence, either of the master himself, or, in certain cases, of his servants . But by the Workmen's Compensation Act 1897, a new principle was intro- duced, whereby certain servants in certain employments Acts of were given a right to compensation for injuries, wholly 8 97 to irrespective of any See also:consideration of negligence or 1906 . contributory negligence . As regards such servants in such employments the master was in effect made an insurer against accidental injuries . The act was confessedly tentative and partial; it dealt only with selected industries, and even within these industries was not of universal application . But where it did apply, it gave a right to a limited compensation in every case of injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment, whether that accident had been brought about by negligence or not, and whether the injured servant had or had not contributed to it by his own negligence . The act applied only to employment on, or in, or about certain localities where, at the same time, the employer was what the act called an " undertaker," that is, the person whose business was there being carried on . If we wanted to know whether a workman was within the act, we had to ask, first, was he employed on, or in, or about a railway, or a factory, or a mine, or a See also:quarry, or an See also:engineering shop,or a See also:building of the kind mentioned in the act; secondly, was he employed by one who was, in relation to that railway, &c., the undertaker as defined by the act; and thirdly, was he at the time of the accident at work on, or in, or about that railway, &c . Unless these three conditions were fulfilled the employment was not within the act . The employments to which the act applied comprised See also:rail-ways, factories (which included docks, warehouses and See also:steam laundries), mines, engineering works and most kinds of buildings . " Workman " included every person engaged in an employment to which the act applied, whether by manual labour or otherwise, and whether his agreement was one of service or See also:apprenticeship or otherwise, expressed or implied, oral or in writing . By the Workmen's Compensation Act 1900, the benefits of the act of 1897 were extended to agricultural labourers . The Workmen's Compensation Act 1906 (which came into force on the 1st of See also:July 1907) extended the right of compensation for injuries practically to all persons in service, and also introduced many provisions not contained in the acts of 1897 and 1900 (repealed) . It does not apply to persons in the See also:naval or military service of the See also:crown (s . 9), or persons employed other-See also:wise than by way of manual labour whose remuneration exceeds two hundred and fifty pounds a year, or persons whose employment is of a casual nature, and who are employed otherwise than for the purposes of the employer's See also:trade or business, or members of a See also:police force, or out-workers, or members of the employer's See also:family dwelling in his See also:house . But it expressely applies to seamen . To entitle a workman engaged in an employment to which the act applies to compensation all the following conditions must be fulfilled: (r) There must be personal injury Conditions . by accident . This will exclude injury wilfully inoi'See also:dahn . flicted, unless the injury results in death or serious and permanent disablement, but the act introduces a new See also:provision by making the suspension or disablement from work or death caused by certain See also:industrial diseases " accidents " within the meaning of the act . The industrial diseases specified in the 3rd See also:schedule of the act were See also:anthrax, See also:ankylostomiasis, and See also:lead, See also:mercury, See also:phosphorus and See also:arsenic poisoning or their sequelae . But § 8 of the act authorized the secretary of state to make orders from time to time including other industrial diseases, and such orders have embraced See also:glass workers' See also:cataract, telegraphists' See also:cramp, eczematous ulceration of the skin produced by dust or liquid, ulceration of the mucous membrane of the See also:nose or mouth produced by dust, &c . To render the employer liable the workman must either obtain a certificate of disablement or be suspended or die by reason of the disease . If the disease has been contracted by a See also:gradual process, all the employers who have employed the workman during the previous twelve months in the employment to which the disease was due are liable to contribute a See also:share of the compensation to the employer primarily liable . (2) The accident must arise out of and in the course of the employment . In each case it will have to be determined whether the workman was at the time of the accident in the course of his employment, and whether the accident arose out of the employment . 
It will have to be considered when and where the particular employment began and ended . Other difficulties have arisen and will frequently arise when the work-man at the time of the accident is doing something which is no part of the work he is employed to do . So far as the decisions have gone, they indicate that if what the workman is doing is no act of service, but merely for his own See also:pleasure, or if he is improperly meddling with that which is no part of his work, the accident does not arise out of and in the course of his employment; but if, while on his master's work, he upon an emergency acts in his master's See also:interest, though what he does is no part of the work he is employed to do, the accident does arise out of and in the course of his employment . (3) The injury must be such as disables the workman for a See also:period of at least one See also:week from earning full See also:wages at the work at which he was employed . (4) Notice of the accident must be given as soon as practicable after the happening thereof, and before the workman has voluntarily left the employment in which he was injured; and the claim for compensation (by which is meant notice that he claims compensation under the act addressed by the workman to the employer) must be made within six months from the occurrence of the accident or, in case of death, from the time of death . Want of notice of the accident or defects in it are not to be a See also:bar to proceedings, if occasioned by See also:mistake or other reasonable cause, and the employer is not prejudiced thereby . But want of notice of a claim for compensation is a bar to proceedings, unless the employer by his conduct has estopped himself from relying upon it . (5) An injured workman must, if so required by the employer, submit himself to medical examination . When these conditions are fulfilled, an employer who is within the act has no See also:answer unless he can prove that the injury arose from the serious and wilful misconduct of the workman . The precise effect of these terms is not clear; but mere negligence is not within them . Where the injury causes death, the right to compensation belongs to the workman's " dependents "; that is, such of the members of the workman's family as were at the time of the death wholly or in part dependent upon the earnings of the workman for their See also:maintenance . " Members of a family " means wife or husband, See also:father, See also:mother, grandfather, grandmother, step-father,injured workman in the employment of the employers for whom he is working at the time of the injury . In Amount. case of death, if the workman leaves dependents who were wholly dependent on his earnings, the amount recovered is a sum equal to his earnings in the employment of the same employer during the three years next preceding the injury, or the sum of £15o, whichever is the larger, but not exceeding boo; if the period of his employment by the same employer has been less than three years, then the amount of his earnings during the three years is to be deemed to be 156 times his See also:average weekly earnings during the period of his actual employment under the said employer . If the workman leaves only dependents who were not wholly dependent, the amount recovered is such sum as may be reasonable and proportionate to the injury to them, but not, exceeding the amount payable in the previous case . If the workman leaves no dependents, the amount recoverable is the reasonable expenses of his medical attendance and See also:burial, not exceeding £ro . In case of total or partial incapacity for work resulting from the injury, what is recovered is a weekly See also:payment during the incapacity after the second week not exceeding 5o% of the workman's average weekly earnings during the previous twelve months, if he has been so long employed, but if not, then for any less period during which he has been in the continuous employment of the same employer; such weekly payment is not to exceed £r—and in fixing it regard is to be had to the difference between the amount of his average weekly earnings before the accident and the average amount which he is able to See also:earn after the accident . Any payments, not being wages, made by the employer in respect of the injury must also be taken into See also:account . The weekly payment may from time to time be reviewed at the See also:request of either party, upon See also:evidence of a change in the circumstances since the See also:award was made, and after six months may be redeemed by the employer by payment of a lump sum . A workman is within the act although at the time of the injury he has been in the employment for less than two See also:weeks, and although there are no actual earnings from the same employer upon which a weekly average can be computed . But how are the average weekly earnings which he would have earned from the same employer to be estimated ? The question must be determined as one of fact by reference to all the circumstances of the particular case . Suppose the workman to he engaged at six shillings a See also:day and injured on the first day . If it can be inferred that he would have remained in such employment for a whole week, his average weekly earnings from the same employer may be taken at See also:thirty shillings . If it can be inferred that he would have worked one day and no more, his average weekly earnings from the same employer may be taken at six shillings . All questions as to liability or otherwise under the act, if not settled by agreement, are referred to See also:arbitration in accordance with a See also:scheme prescribed by the act . Contracting out is not permitted, See also:save in one event: where a scheme of compensation, benefit or See also:insurance for the workmen of an employer has been certified by the Registrar of Friendly See also:Societies to be not less favourable to the workmen and their dependents than the provisions of the act, and that where the scheme provides for contributions by the workmen, it confers benefits at least equal to those contributions, in addition to the benefits to which the workmen would have been entitled under the act, and that a majority (to be ascertained by See also:ballot) of the workmen to whom the scheme is applicable are in favour of it, the employer may contract with any of his workmen that the provisions of the step-mother, son, daughter, See also:grandson, granddaughter, step-son, step-daughter, See also:brother, See also:sister, See also:half brother, half-sister . The act of 1906 makes also a very remarkable departure in including illegitimate relations in the direct line among " dependents," for where a workman, being the See also:parent or grandparent of an illegitimate See also:child, leaves such a child dependent upon his earnings, or, being an illegitimate child, leaves a parent or grandparent so dependent upon his earnings, such child or parent is to be included in the " members of a family." Under the act compensation is for loss of wages only, and is, as has been said, based upon the actual previous earnings of the scheme shall be' substituted for the act; such certificate may not be for more than five years, and may in certain circumstances be revoked . The act does not See also:touch the workman's rights at common law or under the Employers' Liability Act, but the workman, if more than one remedy is open to him, can enforce only one . When the circumstances create a legal liability in some other person, e.g. where the injury is caused by the negligence of a sub-contractor or of a stranger, in st'ch cases the employer, if required to pay compensation under the act, is entitled to be indemnified by such other person . Under the Factory Acts, offences, when they result in death or bodily injury to health, may be punished by See also:fine not exceeding £See also:loo, and the whole or any part of such fine may be applied for the benefit of the injured person or his family, or otherwise as the secretary of state determines . Similar provisions occur in the Mines Acts . Any sum so applied must be taken into account in estimating compensation under the Employers' Liability and Work-men's Compensation Acts . Law in Other Countries.—In See also:Germany (q.v.) there is a system of compulsory state insurance against accidents to workmen . Germany . The law. See also:dates from 1884, being amended from time to time (1885, 1886, 1887, 1900, 1903) to embrace different classes of employment . Occupations are grouped into (1) industry; (2) See also:agriculture; (3) building; (4) marine, to all of which one general law, with See also:variations necessary to the particular occupation in question, is applicable . There are also special provisions for prisoners and See also:government officials . Practically every kind of working-man is thus included, with the exception of domestic servants and artisans or labourers working on their own account . All workmen and officials whose See also:salary does not exceed £15o a year come within the law . No compensation is payable where an accident is caused through a person's own See also:gross carelessness, and where an accident has been contributed to by a criminal act or intentional wrongdoing the compensation may be refused or only partially allowed . With these exceptions, compensation for injury is payable in case of injury so long as the injured is unfit to work; in case of total incapacity an See also:allowance is made equal to two-thirds of the injured person's See also:annual earnings, in case of partial incapacity, in See also:pro-portion to the degree that his wage-earning capacity has been affected . In case of death the compensation is either burial money or an allowance to the family varying in amount from 20 to 6o% of the annual earnings according to circumstances . The provision of compensation for accidents falls entirely upon employers, and in See also:order to lighten the See also:burden thus falling upon them, and at the same time to guard against the possible in-solvency of an individual employer, associations or self-administering bodies of employers have been formed—usually all the employers of each particular branch of industry in a district . These associations See also:fix the amount of compensation after each accident, and at the end of the year assess the amount upon the individual employers . There is an See also:appeal from the association to an arbitration court, and in particularly complicated cases there may be a further appeal to the imperial insurance See also:department . No allowance is paid until after the See also:lapse of thirteen weeks from the accident, and in the meantime the injured person is supported from a sick fund to, which the employers contribute one-third, the employee contributing two-thirds . In Germany quite twelve millions of workpeople are insured; in 1905 a sum of nearly eight millions See also:sterling was paid for accidents, and a million and a half to the families of those killed in accidents . In See also:Austria the compulsory insurance of workmen was provided for by a law of 1887, with subsequent amendments . Briefly, Austria. nearly every class of industrial worker is included under the See also:Austrian law, which is administered by special territorial insurance institutions, each of them embracing particular classes of industries or workers . The institutions are managed by committees, one-third of the members of each See also:committee being chosen by the See also:minister of the interior, one-third by the employers and one-third by the workers . Compensation is payable, in case of accidents, on a scale proportionate to the injured person's wages during the preceding year . In case of death, a certain sum is paid for funeral expenses, an annuityto the widow, if one is left, equal to 20% of the deceased's annual wages—if the widow remarries, she receives a lump sum equal to three annual payments in See also:liquidation of the See also:annuity—an annuity to each legitimate child equal to 15%, or, if the child. has no mother, equal to 20% of the father's wages; an annuity to the father or mother, if dependent on the deceased for support, equal to 20% of the annual wages . As in the English act of 1906 illegitimate See also:children are recognized by being granted an annuity in the case of the death of a father equal to to% of his.' wages . In no case can the total amount of the annuities exceed 5o% of the deceased's annual wages . Where the accident has resulted in total incapacity, the workman receives an annuity equal to 6o% of his wages . No allowance is paid until after the fourth week, during which time the injured is supported by the sick-insurance institutions . The provision for the system is raised by contributions to the extent of nine-tenths by the employers and one-tenth by the workers, deducted from their wages . Instead of the See also:German method by which an annual payment equal to the amount disbursed is required from each employer, he is required to provide the full amount necessary for the complete payment of the See also:pension, this amount being placed to the See also:credit of a special insurance fund . In See also:France a system of compulsory state insurance against accidents was created by a law of 1898 . The principal feature in the See also:French law is the attempt to meet the possible France . insolvency of the employer by the See also:establishment of a special See also:guarantee fund, created by a small addition to the " business tax (contribution See also:des patentes), and, in the case of the See also:mining industry, by a small tax on mines . See also:Norway, by a law of 1894, amended in 1897 and 1899, adopted a system of compulsory insurance modelled to a See also:great extent on the German system . Instead, however, of a Norway. trade association as in Germany, or a district insurance association as in Austria, there is a government insurance See also:office, in which employers have to insure their workmen . In See also:Denmark a law was passed in 1897 rendering employers personally liable for the amount of compensation for accidents, but employers may relieve themselves of this liability Denmark. by insuring workmen in an assurance association approved of by the minister of the interior . This course, how-ever, is discretionary with employers . In See also:Italy, although many attempts were made between 1889 and 1898 to introduce a system of compulsory insurance, it was not until the latter year that the principle was Italy. adopted . There is a See also:National See also:Bank for the Insurance of Working men against Accident (Cassa Nazionale di Assicurazione per gli infortuni degli operaji sul lavoro), created under a law of 1883 . It has special privileges, such as exemption from See also:taxation and the employment of the branch offices of the state post-office savings bank as See also:local offices . Under the law of 1898 there is a See also:primary obligation on the employer to insure his work-men with the National Bank, but he may, if he prefers, insure with other societies approved by government . Employers employing about five hundred workmen may, instead of insuring, establish a fund for the payment of not less than the statutory compensation, subject to giving adequate See also:security for the sufficiency of the fund . Exemption from compulsory insurance is granted to employers who have established a mutual insurance association, which must comply with certain prescribed conditions . Railway companies, also, are exempt, if they have See also:relief funds which conform with the provisions of the act .
In See also:Spain an act of the 3oth of See also:January 'goo, adopted the principle of the personal responsibility of the employer for accidents to workmen other than those due to vis See also:major
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The act also See also:lays down regulations for prevent- Spain
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See also:ing accidents in dangerous trades, and releases the employer from personal liability on effecting adequate insurance of his workmen with an approved insurance company
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See also: The employer can, however, insure himself against liability in the Royal Insurance See also:Institute . Compensation bcomes payable after the expiration of sixty days from the date of the accident . See also:Russia has a law which came into force on the 1st of January 1904 . Under this law employers in certain specified industries Russia. are bound to indemnify workers for incapacity of more than three days' duration due to injury arising out of their work . Employers are exempt from liability by insuring their workmen in insurance companies whose terms are not less favourable than those laid down by the law . See also:Belgium passed a law dealing with industrial accidents on the 24th of See also:December 1903 . It adopts the principle of the Belgium. personal liability of the employer in certain specified trades or industries . There is a power of extension to such other undertakings as may be declared dangerous by the See also:Commission on Labour Accidents . Employers may exempt themselves from their liability by contracting for the payment of compensation by an insurance company approved by the government or by the National Savings and Pension Fund . Where an employer does not so contract, he must (with certain exemptions) contribute to a special insurance fund . The law of 1903 also established a permanent Commissioa on Labour Accidents . See also:Switzerland in 1899 adopted a law providing for Switzer- See also:land. accident insurance, but it was defeated on See also:referendum landd, . in May 1900 . In the See also:United States the law mainly depends on the doctrine of common employment, and the extent to which this doctrine is applied varies considerably in the different states, united States, more particularly as to who are and who are not to ~' be regarded as fellow-servants . The tendency, how-ever, has been to increase the liability of the employer for the negligence of a fellow-servant, and in the case of employment on See also:railways many states have passed laws either modifying or abrogating the doctrine . See also:Colorado, by a law of 1901, has entirely abrogated it; and See also:Alabama, See also:Massachusetts and New See also:York have laws generally similar to the English act of 1880 . But the greatest departure, due to the initiative of See also:President See also:Roosevelt, has been the passing by the Federal See also:Congress of the laws of See also:April 22 and May 30, 1908, one giving damages to injured employees of interstate See also:carriers by railroad, and common carriers by railroad in Territories, the District of See also:Columbia, the See also:Canal See also:Zone and other territory governed by Congress, and the other giving See also:regular wages for not more than one year to injured employees of the U.S. government in arsenals, See also:navy yards, construction work on See also:rivers, harbours and fortifications, hazardous work in connexion with the See also:Panama Canal or Reclamation Service, and in government manufacturing establishments . These national laws, which were intended to serve as an example to the states, specifically provided for employers' liability and for the non-recognition of the doctrine of common employment . Most of the See also:British colonial states have adopted the principleof the English Workmen's Compensation Act of 1897, and the various colonial acts are closely modelled on the English act, with more or less important variations in detail . The New See also:Zealand Act was passed in 1900, and amended colonies. in 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1905 . The act of 1905 (No . 50) fixes the minimum compensation for total or partial disablement at £1 a week when the worker's previous remuneration was not less than 3os. a week . See also:South See also:Australia passed a Workmen's Compensation Act in 'goo and Western Australia one in 1902 . New South See also:Wales passed one in 1905, and British Columbia in 1902 .
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