TortsProf Blog

Editor: Christopher J. Robinette
Southwestern Law School

Monday, September 19, 2022

SLU: Workers' Comp: 50 Years Later

On October 11, from 9-1 CST, Saint Louis University is hosting a conference entitled "Fifty Years After 'Inadequate and Inequitable':  Reflections on State Workmen's Compensation Laws."  Panelists are Jason Bent, Mike Duff, James Gallen, Price Fishback, and Ye Yuan.  The blurb:

In 1970, Congress noted in its prelude to the enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act that “serious questions have been raised concerning the fairness and adequacy of present workmen’s compensation laws in the light of the growth of the economy, the changing nature of the labor force, increases in medical knowledge, changes in the hazards associated with various types of employment, new technology creating new risks to health and safety, and increases in the general level of wages and the cost of living.”In reaction to these developments Congress established a National Commission on State Workmen’s Compensation Laws to “undertake a comprehensive study and evaluation of State workmen’s compensation laws in order to determine if such laws provide an adequate, prompt, and equitable system of compensation.” The Commission formed by President Nixon was tasked with providing a “detailed statement of the findings and conclusions of the Commission, together with such recommendations as it deems advisable” no later than July 31, 1972. That report was made, about fifty years ago. The Commission’s ultimate conclusion was “that State workmen’s compensation laws are in general neither adequate nor equitable.”The purpose of this conference is to reflect upon the significance of the report as a moment in the legal history of the treatment of workplace injury. To aid in the reflection, we discuss what workers’ compensation is, the justice it attempts to effectuate, what happened leading up to the 1970s, and the system’s uncertain future.

CONTACT:

Falethia HawthorneProgram CoordinatorWilliam C. Wefel Center for Employment LawSaint Louis University School of Law[email protected] 

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/tortsprof/2022/09/slu-workers-comp-50-years-later.html

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