Running head: COMPENSATION PROGRAMS

Worker Compensation Programs

Rajinder Kaur Saharan (1930865)

MADS 6604 V7

Prof. Shailendra Pathak

Fairleigh Dickinson University

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Worker compensation programs have developed greatly throughout the centuries. In the

past, workers are liable and responsible for their own health and safety. If they got injured, it was

their own fault and the accidents were blamed on their carelessness. Therefore, accident victims

were not the liabilities of their employers. It was highly unfair to laborers working in factories

operating heavy machinery and dangerous equipment. The Industrial Revolution helped to fuel

and accelerates the creation of employee health and safety programs. Companies realize that

their workers' health is of paramount importance, because employees would not want to work for

organizations that do not care about their health. If the risks are not worth the compensation, then

they would not want to work there, thus the employer loses out on the opportunity to recruit

skilled workers to work for them. 

Modern health and safety programs are quite advanced to ensure that workers are given

the full priority to maintain health and safety. Organizations are liable for all health and safety

hazards, and workers are given adequate compensation if any accidents occur. Occupational

health and safety programs are taking proactive approaches to protective their workers, give

better medical benefits, and design jobs that are equipped with full safety protection measures to

minimize the possibility of accidents in the work place. Social insurance and worker

compensation programs in developed countries are quite developed to ensure that workers'

livelihood are not compromised if they received injuries from the job.

Despite the high degree of advancement in modern health and safety programs, there is

still a conflict regarding compensation to workers in the case of injury-related incidents at the

work place. The main issues concern how workers are to be medically treated, and how much

compensation they should receive when they come back from injury. There are controversies in

this area because the definition of injuries and degree of healing from injuries are ambiguous.
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Many workers were medically treated and are able to come back to work, but their sensory and

motor skills have been compromised and they are not the same workers they were prior to injury.

Some employees do not fully recover 100% from injury, and management still does not know

how to compensate such long-term injuries. More steps are still necessary to be taken before

workers are given the full protection and compensation for taking risks in their jobs.

The good news is workers' rights organizations are growing stronger day by day; they

possess more power to pressure governments and business organizations than in the past. The

ultimate goal for all profit and non-profit organizations is to create a healthy and safe working

environment for all their staff members, and to design employee compensation programs

that ensure all workers are fully compensated in any case of accidents or work-related injuries.