Workers' Compensation

Workers' compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence. The tradeoff between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain."

While plans differ among jurisdictions, provision can be made for weekly payments in place of wages (functioning in this case as a form of disability insurance), compensation for economic loss (past and future), reimbursement or payment of medical and like expenses (functioning in this case as a form of health insurance), and benefits payable to the dependents of workers killed during employment (functioning in this case as a form of life insurance).

General damages for pain and suffering, and punitive damages for employer negligence, are generally not available in workers' compensation plans, and negligence is generally not an issue in the case. These laws were first enacted in Europe and Oceania, with the United States following shortly thereafter.

Read more about Workers' Compensation:  Statutory Compensation Law

Famous quotes containing the word compensation:

    In compensation for considerable disgust, despondency, and boredom—such as living in solitude without friends, books, duties, or passions necessarily entails—we are given those quarter-hours of deepest communion with ourselves and nature. Those who completely barricade themselves from boredom, barricade themselves from themselves as well: they will never get to drink the most refreshingly potent draught from the their own innermost fountain.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)