THE BIRTH OF SOCIAL RIGHTS IN EUROPE:
THE LAWS OF WORK ACCIDENTS (1877-1900)
1. Labour conditions in 19th century
Europe: the social question.
The industrial revolution involved a change in
the production process which affected the
whole society, thus shaping a new framework
in the 19th century Europe concerning
the political, social and economic fields. That
century witnesses the first important crisis
due to overproduction and the rise of the industrial concentration of capital and work.
The excessive industrial development, the
emergence of large companies and their uncontrolled
growth resulted in poverty, which
became evident in a double sense. On the one
hand, due to mechanization, many workers
were left unemployed. This gave way to vagrancy
in industrial areas. On the other hand,
the workers’ hard day work periods, low
salaries, bad conditions of safety and health
and the increase of the accidents produced by
the new machinery and tiredness made working
conditions become subhuman.
The upper classes became aware of the problems arisen and started worrying about the social question, the so-called social reforming policy. Along the19th century an international agreement seems to have taken place both in intellectual and in political circles, which pleaded for the active intervention of the state in solving the new problems caused by industrialization.
| State | Temporary dasability | Invalidity | Decease |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | Up to 60% of the salary depending on degree of disability. | 67% annuity of the salary if it is total or the corresponding proportion if it is partial. | 20% pension of the victim’s salary to the partner, 20% to under-sixteen-year-old children and 20% to ancestors living with the victim (60% salary maximum). |
| Austria | Up to 50% of the salary depending on damage. | 60% annuity of the salary if it is total or the corresponding proportion if it is partial. | 20% pension of the victim’s salary to the partner, 20% to under-sixteen-year- old children and 20% to ancestors living with the victim (50% salary maximum). |
| Spain | Half the wage. | Two years if it is total, eighteen months if it is total and normal work activity can be carried out; twelve months if it is partial and usual job can be done. | Two years’ wage to the widow with descendants; eighteen months to descendants only; one year to widow without descendants; ten months to poor and sixty-year-old ancestors when there is not a widow or descendants. If there is only one, seven months. |
| England | Up to half the wage from the second week. | Up to half the salary from the second week. | Up to three years maximum to dependent people. If the dependence is partial, the quantity is reduced according to an arbiter’s judgement. |
| France | Half the wage from the fifth day. | Two-thirds’ annuity if it is total. If it is partial, half the wage depreciation. | 20% of the salary to the partner, 15% to one under-sixteen-year-old child, 25% to two, 35% to three and 40% to four or more. 10% to ancestors (30% limit) There is a 60% salary restriction on the pension. |
| Italy | Half the wage (total) or half the wage depreciation (partial). | Two-thirds of the salary if it’s total. If it is partial five years the wage depreciation. | five years of the salary between the heirs according to the general law. |
| Norway | 60% the salary if it is total or up to half the salary (if partial). | 60% annuity if it is total. If it is partial, an income depending on the damage (it can’t be more than 50%). | 20% pension of the salary to the partner, 20% to under-sixteen-year-old children and 20% to ancestors living with the victim (50% salary maximum). |
2. The first response of the state to
the social question: the law of work
accidents.
Among the social problems arisen in the 19th
C, work accidents, which increased during
the industrial development, were very important.
The lack of regulation for injured
workers who become incapable for work
had tried to be palliated by charity or a considerate
employer. This proved to be insufficient
to resolve the new dimension of
poverty, though. In this context a new movement
of awareness of work accidents comes
up and manifests itself in the laws of work accidents
promulgated in Europe in the last
quarter of this century.
These laws reflect a new conception of the theory of the employer’s objective responsibility, according to which the patron is objectively responsible for any damage resulting from the industrial activity including work accidents. The Principle of Industrial Risk has been considered unavoidable in every law about work accidents in Europe since the international Congress in Brussels in 1897 dealing with labour accidents and social insurance.
3. Protection against work accidents
in Spain: a comparative perspective.
Europe lives within a real legal revolution in
the last quarter of the 19th C. A great part of
the European countries promulgate laws of
work accidents in most of which prevails
the doctrine of professional risk. The legal
system calls for the doctrine of objective responsibility,
which is based on the principle
that the economic consequences of a work
accident must be supported by the employer,
whether he is to blame for it or not.
Among the European countries that regulated
work accidents in the last quarter of the
19th century the following can be pointed
out: Switzerland (1877, 1881 and 1887); Germany
(1884 and 1900) Austria (1887) Norway
(1894); England (1897); Finland (1898); Italy
(1898); France (1898) and Spain (1900)
In Spain the problem of work accidents did
not receive any legal response until 1900.
The Spanish political and economic situation
made it difficult to carry out any reforming
policy because political classes were
more concerned about colonial wars or dynastic
fights than about the working class’
problems. This situation changed with the
1900 law which, for the first time, established
social security benefits for the accident victims
and their relatives. According to 1900 law, every worker had a right to the employer’s
financial compensation for a labour
accident which might cause incapability to
work. In case of death, the same right was
recognized to their heirs.
The following comparative chart was obtained
by relating the social security benefits
established in Spain (1900 law) and other
European legal systems at that time:
As it is reflected in this table, the social security
benefits established by the 1900 law in
Spain for injured workers is in accordance
with those established in the European countries,
but less ambitious than in Germany,
Austria or Norway.
A century after the enactment of the first Law
of work accidents, the multiplication and
consolidation of social rights in Europe cannot
obviate the historical importance of the
advances concerning the improvement of
the working class’ social and work conditions
which took place in the last quarter of the
19th century. The break-up of ideological
moulds and mentality which was produced
by this law, and the effort to adapt the ancient
legal systems to a new reality, should serve
as behavioural models in order to adequate
our legal systems to the present realities
marked by the information society and the
globalization processes. At this point, the
historical-juridical analysis provides the legal
actions with most useful tools and perspectives
for the development of an appropriate
regulatory work.
Dr. Guillermo García González, Department
of Public Law, Legal and Historical Sciences-Faculty of Law, Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona (Spain)
Guillermo.Garcia.Gonzalez@uab.es
