Worker's Compensation Laws & OSHA

This research examines workers' compensation laws and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA). The purpose of the examination is to describe and explain the laws, and to identify the principal differences between OSHA and the workers' compensation laws.

Both OSHA and workers' compensation laws in the United States are extensions of the concept that public health should be promoted and protected by government.1 In contemporary society, prospects for the health of individuals are ". . . determined by public policy, by those decisions which shape contemporary environments . . . ."2 Health, thus, is ". . . not a 'state' to be captured and dealt with; nor is it some achievement to be attained with finality. It is rather the response of people to their environments . . . ."3

Public health policy at the national or state level is required, because the factors affecting individual health are, in many instances, pervasive in society. Development of acceptable levels of public health within a large and complex society such as that of the United States

. . . requires an interpretation of the nature of today's health problem. . . . Its focus is on the interconnection between causes and illnesses and the ways they affect each other, as well as the linkages among causes and among illnesses. All these ties suggest the plausibility of viewing today's health problem as a response to modern envir

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3 Critics14 1. Provide sure, prompt, and Provide swift, and certain reasonable income and medi compensation for onthejob cal benefits to workacci injuries. dent victims. 2. Provide a single remedy, Compensate workers without and reduce court delays. regard to fault for onthe job injuries. 3. Relieve public and private Provide wageloss replace charities of financial ment for workers injured drain incident to uncom onthejob. pensated industrial acci dents. 4. Eliminate payments of fees Provide medical care for to lawyers, and witnesses, workers injured onthejob. eliminate the costs asso ciated with industrial accident trials. 5. Encourage maximum employer Internalize the costs of interest in safety, and industrial accidents within rehabilitation. those industries where they occur. 6. Promote frank study of Limit the liability of industrial accident employers associated with causes.

Category: Government - W