Compensating Victims of Occupational Diseases: Can We Structure an Effective Policy?

Abstract

Workers afflicted with occupational injury or disease are compensated for their losses in a variety of ways. The mechanism that is most often considered is workers’ compensation insurance which, under suitable conditions, provides compensation for such losses without regard to fault on the part of the employer. Workers may also be compensated through the existence of wage differentials related to the anticipated losses or to the portion of those losses not properly compensated from other sources. In addition, victims of occupational injury or disease may obtain compensation through the tort system if the cause of injury or disease is a product whose producer has failed to provide it in a safe form or with suitable warnings regarding the dangers involved in its use. Other sources of compensation include private disability insurance, private health and accident insurance, and payments under public programs such as Social Security. This paper discusses the problems associated with structuring a reasonable system of compensation for occupational disease in a context in which various sources of compensation exist.¹