Canadian employers, generally speaking, prefer an opportunity of choosing between workmen's compen sation insurance provided by the state or by the com panies.
The establishment of a state workmen's compen sation system in Ontario in 1914, probably set a new standard in this matter. As other Canadian prov inces have studied its form and one or more propose to adopt it with perhaps some modifications, a few notes on this act will prove instructive.
The Workmen's Compensation Act of Ontario was framed by Sir William Meredith, chief justice of Ontario, and embodies what may be described as a new code of law respecting compensation for accidents to workmen.
The part of the act is to be administered by the State Board is called Part 1. It does not apply to all employments, but it applies to employments in the very large number of industries enumerated in Schedule 1 and Schedule 2, chief among which are manufacturing, building, construction, lumbering, mining, quarrying, transportation, navigation, opera tion of public utilities, etc.
The distinction between the two schedules is that in Schedule 1 the Board levies an assessment and col lects an accident fund out of which the compensation to workmen is paid, the employers in this schedule not being individually liable to pay the compensation; while in Schedule 2, no accident fund is collected from the employers but they are individually liable to pay the compensation as each accident occurs.
The compensation for the injury is payable under the Ontario act irrespective of any question of negli gence or absence of negligence, and the old defenses of common employment and voluntary assumption of risk are no longer applicable. The only cases in which compensation is not payable, provided the accident arises out of and in the course of the employment, are: (1) Where the disability lasts less than seven days; (2) 'Where the accident is attributable solely to the serious and wilful misconduct of the workman and does not result in death or serious disablement.
No agreement to forego the benefits of the act is valid; no part of the amount payable to the accident fund by the employer is to be charged against the workmen; and the compensation cannot be assigned, charged, or attached, except with the approval of the Board.
Compensation is to be paid for the industrial dis eases specified in the act as well as for accidents.
The provisions of the act respecting compensation are in lieu of the right of action for damages at law.
An important feature of the compensation under the act is that it is payable periodically rather than in a lump sum, and as a rule, it continues during dis ability or during life, as the case may be.
Where the impairment of earning capacity does not exceed 10 per cent, the compensation is to be fixed by the Board at a lump sum, unless the Board thinks it is not to the advantage of the workman to do so; and the Board may in other cases fix the compensation at a lump sum if it sees fit, or may in cases of special need make lump-sum advances without entirely com muting the compensation.
All questions, as to right to compensation and the amount of it, are determined by the Board and its of ficers instead of by the courts.
Prior to the establishment of a state system in Ontario, an exhaustive inquiry was made by a special commission of the Ontario government. At the out set of the inquiry, it was contended by those who spoke on behalf of the workingmen: (1) That the law of. Ontario was entirely inadequate in the conditions un der which industries were carried on, to provide just compensation for the employed who meet with in juries, or suffer from industrial diseases contracted during the course of their employment ; and (2) that under a just law the risks arising from these causes should be regarded as risks of the industries and that compensation for them should be paid by the indus tries.
The Ontario commissioner, in his report, stated that most of the compensation laws and perhaps all of them, except the German, had not been in force long enough to enable a conclusive opinion to be formed as to their merits or demerits. It was finally decided that a compensation law, framed on the main lines of the German law, but with certain modifications, would be better suited to the circumstances and conditions of Ontario than the British compensation law or that of any other country.