The Workmen Compensation Act, 1923 is an enactment that was issued by the tral Government and was implemented by various State Governments which gives social security to workers. The Act was formed after it was noted that laborers were getting more exposed to danger with the use of advanced and sophisticated machinery. The common law had it that the employer would only take up the compensation responsibility if it is found that the industrial accident was a result of his negligence. In India, the issue of compensating workmen after fatal and major accidents hit the road in 1884.
The State offered a hearing ear when members of the Legislative Assembly, employers’ representatives, workers and experts in medicine and insurance formed a committee that gave a report that led to the enacting of the Workmen’s Compensation Act in 1923.
For an industry to run, an employer uses capital, skills in business and the labor of workers who are paid for the labor. The management has to put aside finances for the possibility of the expense needed to repair the machines when they break down. If that care and attention can be given to machines, human beings working in the same environment need also receive care and attention for the risks they undertake when working in that industry.
The Act also puts in place the amount that is to be paid according to the intensity of the injury. This makes an employer aware of the amount of compensation he is liable to pay in case of an accident. The Act is recognized all over India and applies to all workmen and casual workers in factories, plantations, mines, transport establishments, railways, ships, circuses, construction work and any other potentially dangerous occupations made mention in Schedule II of this Act.
The Act has it that employers should have duties and obligations that include the welfare of workers after an injury resulting from employment in the same way they have reserved the right to make profits. The Act aims to see workmen have a sustainable life after an employment-related accident.
The Act is applicable only to those workmen working in industries as specified in the Act. The Act affords protection to a workman from losses or injury caused by accident arising out of and in the course of employment subject to certain exceptions as laid down in the Act.
To make the employer pay compensation, the death or injury suffered by the workman must be consequence of an ‘accident arising out of and in the course of his employment’ is dependent upon the following four conditions:
(1) The casual connection between the injury and the accident (i.e., personal injury is caused to workman while on work);
(2) The injury and accident caused during the course of employment;
(3) The probability tenable to reason that the work contributed to the causing of personal injury; and
(4) The applicant proves that it was the work and the resulting strain which contributed to or aggravated the injury.
1. Applicability of the Act:
The Act is applicable throughout India except the State of Jammu & Kashmir. The Act does not apply to those areas which are covered by the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948.
2. The salient features of the Act are as follows:
I. Extent and Application:
The Act extends to whole of India. It is also applicable to the workman recruited by companies/establishments registered in India and sent for work abroad.