IS THE WORK-RELATED TEST DESIRABLE FOR ALL DISEASES THAT DISABLE WORKERS?

Every developed country has multiple programs providing cash benefits, medical care, and rehabilitation services to workers with disabilities. In most countries, one of the programs is workers' compensation, which limits benefits to workers who experience work-related injuries or diseases. Workers' compensation programs share several basic characteristics.1 First, workers are eligible for benefits without having to establish fault by their employers. Second, benefits primarily compensate for economic losses, principally loss of actual earnings or earning capacity and the cost of medical care. Third, benefits are prescribed by statute. Common but not universal features of workers' compensation are that the program is entirely financed by employers and that workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy of workers against their employers for work-related injuries. Williams described several models of workers' compensation that provide variations on these features.2 Germany enacted the first modem workers' compensation law in 1884. The German model relies on collective responsibility of Industrial Injuries Institutes (Berufsgenossenschaften), which are non-profit corporations, to administer the program subject to limited statutory requirements for coverage and benefits and to government supervision. The costs are shared among employers and employees. The United Kingdom's workers' compensation law of 1897 was similar to the German model in providing no-fault benefits, but differed by not providing for medical care or rehabilitation services, by assigning responsibility to individual employers rather than industrial associations, and by not requiring employers to insure their risks. The 1897 law also gave the employee the option to accept workers' compensation benefits or sue the employer for damages. The U.K. model was modified in 1948 to allow the injured worker to both receive workers' compensation benefits and sue the employer for damages, although any recovery in a tort suit reduces the workers' compensation benefits. The United Kingdom also now provides medical benefits to injured workers under the National Health Service.