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النشر الإلكتروني

CHAPTER VIII.

WORKMEN'S INSURANCE IN NORWAY.

ACCIDENT INSURANCE.

HISTORY.

Previous to the enactment of the law of July 23, 1894, the employer was responsible only for such accidents to his workmen as were due to his fault or negligence or that of his direct representatives. But in various special laws provision had been made for the victims of accidents in certain industries.

The law of July 14, 1842, article 62, provides that miners who meet with accidents causing prolonged incapacity for work are entitled to free treatment at the expense of the employer, and to the payment of their entire wages during the first two months and of half their wages during the four following months. Articles 29 and 30 of the law of June 6, 1863, concerning public charity, provide that the owner of a mine shall pay the expenses of an injured workman, provided he has not been employed at the mine for a longer period than two years, and therefore can not claim poor relief from the commune. The law of September 7, 1854, on railroads, declares, in article 16, that the employer is responsible for the faults of his agents.

The marine law of March 24, 1860, imposed on captains and owners the obligation of indemnifying sick and injured sailors on board ship, and intrusted to a special tribunal, composed of a lawyer and two seamen, the adjustment of disputes in this connection.

The marine law of July 20, 1893, article 90, provides that the captain shall give to every sick or injured sailor the necessary care on board ship and on land. In all cases of probably long-continued incapacity for work the sailor may be immediately discharged, and if in a foreign country, intrusted, if possible, to the local consul.

The law of June 15, 1881, modifying that of July 15, 1839, concerning industry, imposes on the owners of workshops the obligation of caring, during four weeks, for such of their workmen as may be rendered incapable of work through sickness or accident.

In 1885 a commission consisting of 11 members was appointed to inquire into the need of factory inspection and to consider the questions of employers' liability and of the insurance of workmen against sickness, accidents, and old age. During the six years of its existence

the commission collected a vast amount of information, and its published reports contained drafts for a factory act and for laws on sickness and accident insurance.

The report of the commission afforded the minister of the interior a basis for a bill, dated April 21, 1893, which was presented to the Storting, though not as a government measure. It could not be discussed in the course of the year 1893, but the social committee of the Storting, established at the beginning of the following session, took it under consideration.

In the memorial accompanying a bill concerning sickness insurance, presented April 7, 1894, the minister of the interior expressed the opinion that accident insurance should not be instituted until the principles of general workmen's insurance had been established. The basis of accident insurance should, in his opinion, be the same as that of invalidity insurance. His conviction was based on a resolution of the International Congress of Industrial Accidents held at Berne in 1891 and on the reports of the Swedish commission which, in 1893, had presented a bill providing for all cases of invalidity, whatever the cause, whether accident, sickness, invalidity proper, or old age. The memorial called attention to the fact that for the working class accident insurance is of comparatively little interest, since the cases of invalidity due to accidents constitute only one-tenth or, for the youngest workmen, one-seventh of all invalidity cases, if under invalidity there be included all incapacity for work whatever the cause. The minister also pointed out the analogy between the nature and economic consequences of accidents and those of occupational diseases, and he remarked that the cost of accident pensions is generally greater than that of pensions for invalidity, and that since the expense of the former is borne by the employer alone, the legislator who should provide for accident insurance before provision had been made for insurance against invalidity would be obliged to give an exact definition of the invalidity resulting from the accident in order to avoid the conflicts which would inevitably arise from the different advantages insured the workman according to the nature of his misfortune. Finally mention was made of the fact that the establishment of general insurance against invalidity would do away with the necessity of laborious investigations, especially those undertaken for the purpose of assigning establishments to various risk classes. But sickness insurance could be established independently of the other classes of insurance. It occupies a special place. For, on the one hand, instead of compensating for the reduction of the loss of the capacity for work, it merely provides temporary aid, and on the other hand its grants are not confused with those of the other kinds of insurance, which begin only when the grants from sickness insurance cease.

Nevertheless the social committee thought it advisable to take up immediately the question of accident insurance, arguing that even though a comparatively small proportion of all cases of invalidity are caused by accidents, their suddenness and the fact that the victim is often in the prime of life give them a special character, and, furthermore, that industry bears a more direct causal relation to such cases than to cases of sickness or to other cases of invalidity, and that it is therefore under greater obligation to give the workman compensation for his losses. The committee thought it possible to organize a system of accident insurance without interfering with the ultimate plans for other forms of insurance, especially since the organization of sickness insurance through private or local agencies is essentially distinct from the organization of accident insurance, for which private initiative is inadequate. To put off the solution of the question of accident insurance until the questions of insurance against invalidity and old age should have been solved would have been, in the opinion of the committee, to retard and complicate it. Hence it proposed the immediate organization of accident insurance along the lines laid down by the ministerial bill of April 21, 1893.

The committee made its report to the Odelsting May 30, 1894, and on June 14 a bill providing for accident insurance passed this house.

This bill provided for compulsory insurance of all workmen in industry and intrusted its administration to a state institution." The aid was to be given from the end of the fourth week after the accident, and in the case of a victim for whose care during the first four weeks no provision had been made through sickness insurance or in any other way, the employer was to make such provision at his own expense. The resources of the institution were to be furnished by premiums paid exclusively by the employers and reckoned on the basis of the wages of the victims with the aid of a classification of risks. The bill provided for the establishment of a commission including, in addition to two members named by the King, two employers and two workmen appointed by the Storting. This commission was to hear appeals from the decisions of the insurance institution. It also provided for the appointment by the communal authorities of inspectors charged with the enforcement of the law. It prohibited all contracts interfering with the enforcement of the law. It authorized persons included under the new law who should have concluded contracts with private companies to transfer to the State Institution of Insurance their rights and obligations under these contracts.

Provision was also made for voluntary insurance for the employees of establishments not subject to compulsory insurance and for the employers of establishments whether subject or not.

The bill was passed by the Lagting on June 30, 1894, and after repassage by the Odelsting it became a law on July 23, 1894.

As finally passed, the bill differed but slightly from its original form. The principal change consisted in the omission of the scale of premiums and classification of risks by industries and in the provision that these should be arranged by the King with the approval of the Storting.

The main provisions of the law are as follows:

PROVISIONS OF THE LAW OF JULY 23, 1894.

The obligatory insurance applies to workmen and others who are employed (1) in factories, in industrial establishments and, in general, at any work carried on in factories involving the use of motive power other than that of man; (2) in mines and industries connected with them, stone quarries, stonecutting establishments, etc.; (3) in the ice industry; (4) in factories which produce or use explosive or easily inflammable materials; (5) in the work of construction, finishing, and repairing of houses, ships, railroads, roads, bridges, wharves, quays, docks, dams, canals, drains, etc., in work on ditches, in work on conduits for gas and water and in the installation of such conduits, and in the repairing or removal of electric wires and lightning rods; (6) in the floating of wood and the work connected with it, in the service of ditches, canals, dams, and in work on railroads and street railway work; (7) in the handling of vessels of any kind, with the exception of the loading and unloading which is done by the crew; (8) in the work of divers and the salvage work connected with it; and (9) in chimney sweeping and in the work of firemen.

Furthermore, in order that the obligation of insurance may apply, the work must be done for an employer whose establishment includes the kind of work mentioned above; it also applies to similar work done for the State or a commune; and the work must continue 30 days at least and require 300 days of work. The provincial department decides, in case of doubt, whether an establishment or a piece of work comes under the law.

The law provided for voluntary insurance, subject to rules fixed by the King: (1) For the employers of establishments subject to obligatory insurance; (2) for workmen in establishments not subject, either collectively, when the insurance is covered for them by their employers, or individually, when each one insures himself; (3) for the employers not subject who have insured their employees according to the preceding provision.

The law excludes from insurance workmen employed by the State or by a commune who, in case of accident, have a claim, either for themselves or for their survivors, to an indemnity adjudged by the King as equivalent to that provided for by the law.

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