Employers' Liability and Worker's Compensation: England and Wales

Abstract

This paper examines the law relating to employers' liability for causing personal injury in the UK. It compares liability in tort with the provision made by the social security scheme in paying industrial injuries benefit. It examines the different legal bases of these schemes and compares their importance by using various statistical analyses. A contrast can be drawn between the public insurance provided by the state and the private insurance which backs the law of tort. The paper argues that the two systems in practice provide comparable amounts of compensation and neither ought necessarily to be seen as inferior to the other. Why, however, preferential benefit continues to be available to those injured at work is called into question.

In describing and comparing both the tort system and social security systems of compensation thia article is very unusual and breaks new academic ground. Although in the UK there is a very extensive literature about the law of tort, there is very little written about workers’ compensation under the state scheme. In large part this is because lawyers are ever-present in tort claims whereas they are very rarely involved in applications for social security benefits. By comparing the two regimes, this paper sets out a context for work injury compensation which has not been made in recent years. In particular, the comparative statistical analysis offers a new treatment. In many respects, albeit in this summarised form, this chapter provides a unique source.

For a partial update see also R. Lewis, "Industrial Injuries Compensation: Tort and Social Security Compared” (2017) 46 Industrial Law Journal 445 - 476. Access - https://ssrn.com/abstract=2955040

For a You Tube lecture on employers liability in tort alone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTR2IpujSdI

Keywords: Tort, Personal Injury, Workmen's Compensation, Industrial Injuries, Social Security, Damages