How has the Economy Changed? Employment

Another change is in employment law. A balance was struck between how much of what an employee needed was to be given by the employer through wages and conditions of work and how much by the state or insurance through the broader welfare and regulatory framework within which employment operated.

For example, at the end of the nineteenth century, employees were given a right by statute to compensation from an insurance fund for accidents at work in industry (and later in farming). As is seen in the Rail and Road Accident Case Study, in practice, tort law did not provide workers with a way of getting compensation from their employers. The development of the right to compensation needs to be viewed not simply as a response to the deficiencies of tort law, but as part of the broader structure of employment relationships. The law of workmen’s compensation in England for instance, was separated from tort law and put into a regulator regime where the processes where simpler and designed to be cheaper. Those designing the scheme were also aware that any one case of injury could have repercussions for a large number of other workers.

All the same, despite the provision of the compensation scheme, in England employees who were disgruntled, or sought a greater sum than the compensation system could provide could still take the case to court. Lawyers were more than willing to seek, and judges often made, exceptions in certain rules to allow tort actions to continue. Other countries adopted differing solutions.

The amount of protection provided by compensation schemes and social welfare payments varied from country to country. Britain in the early 20th century relied heavily on voluntary arrangements made by unions and employers, whereas France provided more by way of state action, e.g. to help women and mothers. All of this is in contrast to the solutions adopted in Germany.

In the more mobile industrial economy, extended families lived in different towns and could provide less informal support to injured members. So others needed to provide support. Whether tort law was sufficient depended on how much support the state provided and what the family and kinship groups were still expected to provide.