Workmen's Compensation Act 1897

The Workmen's Compensation Act 1897 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which dealt with the right of workers for compensation for personal injury. It replaced the 1880 Employer's Liability Act, which required the injured worker the right to sue the employer and put the burden of proof on the employee. After 1897, injured employees had only to show that they had been injured on the job.^[1] These are roughly the same rights German workers got in their 1884 law.^[2]

A "workman" was defined as,

"any person who is engaged in an employment to which this Act applies, whether by way of manual labour or otherwise."^[3]

The employments to which the Act applied were stated to be railways, mining and quarrying, factory work and laundry work.

However the courts took a restrictive interpretation in Simpson v. Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron & Coal Co. ^[4] A widow claimed for the death of a colliery manager who had been killed in an underground accident. Lord Collins MR held that her dead husband was outside the Act's scope, because though the act extended to non-manual workers^[5] the victim "must still be a workman". He said the Act:

"presupposes a position of dependence; it treats the class of workmen as being in a sens inopes consilii, and the Legislature does for them what they cannot do for themselves: it gives them a sort of State insurance, it being assumed that they are either not sufficiently intelligent or not sufficiently in funds to insure themselves. In no sense can such a principle extend to those who are earning good salaries."^[6]

Notes

↑ History of Workers' Compensation, Florida AWC
↑ ct.gov
↑ Workmen's Compensation Act 1897, s.7
↑ Simpson v. Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron & Coal Co. (1905)
↑ unlike the previous law under the Employers Liability Act 1880, from Morgan v. London General Omnibus Co. (1884) 13 QBD 832
↑ Simpson, 1905

References

Simon Deakin, 'The historical process of wage formation', in Linda Clarke et al., The Dynamics of Wage Relations in the New Europe (2000) pp. 38–9
Simon Deakin, 'Welfare State and Contract of Employment', in Noel Whiteside et al., Governance, Industry and Labour Markets in Britain and France (1998) pp. 212 ff.
Frankel, Lee K., and Dawson, Miles, M., Workingmen's Insurance in Europe, New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1911.

United Kingdom legislation

Pre-Parliamentary legislation	List of English statutes Charter of Liberties Magna Carta

Acts of Parliament by states preceding the Kingdom of Great Britain	Acts of the Parliament of England to 1483 1485–1601 1603–1641 Interregnum (1642–1660) 1660–1699 1700–1706 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland Acts of the Parliament of Ireland to 1700 1701–1800

Acts of Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain	1707–1719 1720–1739 1740–1759 1760–1779 1780–1800

Acts of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	1801–1819 1820–1839 1840–1859 1860–1879 1880–1899 1900–1919 1920–1939 1940–1959 1960–1979 1980–1999 2000 to date Halsbury's Statutes UK Statute Law Database

Church of England measures	List Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919

Legislation of devolved institutions	Acts of the Scottish Parliament Acts and Measures of the National Assembly for Wales Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland Orders in Council for Northern Ireland

Orders-in-Council	Orders-in-Council

Secondary legislation	United Kingdom Statutory Instruments Scottish Statutory Instruments Act of Sederunt, Act of Adjournal

Workmen's Compensation Act 1897

See also

Notes

References