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Legislation designed to protect workers on the job is rooted in the Anglo-American legal tradition of Masters Liability which dates back to the English king, Henry I (1068-1135), when a master was held liable for payment in case of the injury or death of his servant.
Restrictions on the master’s liability began to be imposed in England during Industrial Revolution to eliminate any obstacle to the progress of manufacturing enterprises and the profits they generated. The restrictions evolved into the standard tort defenses of fellow servant rule, assumption of risk and contributory negligence (Priestly v. Fowler and progeny).
In the newly formed United States, the courts adopted the common law of England and with it the line of cases supporting the legal impediments to remedy for industrial injury. The first Congress convened in 1790 made a few weak attempts to extend protection to seafarers on ships deemed unseaworthy, but these efforts were ineffectual. Congress would not begin to pass legislation dealing with widespread injuries and deaths on the job until it created the Interstate Commerce Commission.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, safety and health in the workplace were regulated primarily by state legislation and private industry. The major forces behind the implementation of safety measures were the demands of labor organizations and popular outrage sparked by well-documented reports of working conditions.
In the 1870s, health and safety in the workplace was one of the demands of the inclusive labor organization, the Knights of Labor which also championed the formation of a federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (some states already had established bureaus on the state level). In 1877, the Massachusetts legislature passed the first factory inspection law in the nation. By the end of the century, other states had followed this example.
Then in the first decades of the twentieth century, industrial disasters and Bureau of Labor studies drew attention to the need for federal action. Sparked by the tragedy of 362 coal miners killed in West Virginia in 1907, the government created the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1910 to promote safety in the mines and five years later established the National Safety Council. In 1912, The Esch Act authorized prohibitive taxes pm the deadly white phosphorus matches which caused phosphorus necrosis (phossy jaw), a condition that led to disfigurement and death.
Around this same time, states began to enact workers compensation systems and by 1921 most states had joined the movement for a state regulated remedy for on-the-job injuries. But this legislation, as unions who opposed it had warned, contributed little to accident prevention. The next step demand would have to be legislation setting health and safety standards, industrial commissions to establish regulations and an enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance.
In 1913, a Department of Labor was formed dedicated to improving the conditions of work. This was a time when Dr. Alice Hamilton was traveling the country speaking about occupational disease. Her studies influenced many of the subsequent investigations in industrial medicine.
By the 1930s, the Department of Labor under Frances Perkins had created a Bureau of Labor Standards and Congress enacted a series of laws which enlarged the federal government’s role in protecting working people. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set a minimum wage and banned child labor. Twenty years later, the Labor Department was given the authority to set safety and health standards for Longshoremen. These standards were being enforced by 1960 and this went a long way towards the ultimate creation on OSHA.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 was not won without a fight which lasted three years and threatened at one time and another the bill itself. The business community rallied against any interference with the workplace, watered down bills were offered and defeated. But a combination of determined effort and more workplace tragedies particularly the mining disaster of 1967 contributed to the final passing of the Act on April 28, 1970.
Since 1970, OSHA has fulfilled its mandate to improve working conditions, but it has also experienced diminishing regulatory capacity. It appears that the presence of OSHA has reduced industrial accidents and deaths and many of the mechanisms for reporting unsafe working conditions follow the prescription set forth by the law. However, enforcement of inspection and punishment has lagged behind expectations. As originally conceived, employers would be subject to unannounced inspection and fines for violations.
Today, people all over the world commemorate this event with activities, memorials and workshops on workplace health and safety. It is an issue which unites the labor movement and around which all forces of labor can coalesce.
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