Wow … this one from 1911
A poor 10-year-old child had a truly traumatic workplace injury and the civil case by her parents against the employer was dismissed since the “ten-year-old girl knew the dangers of her work and must assume all the responsibility of having her arms torn out”.
Good to see the VP of American Federation of Labor criticising this decision – and lamenting its implications.
After reviewing quite a few of these older papers it appears that (avoiding) civil action (by the injured person or their families) seemed to be one of the strongest motivators for companies to invest in workplace safety.
(Not saying changing attitudes, moralistic reasons, cost to society etc. didn’t have a key role, but those seem to be discussed less in the samples I’ve read so far.)
Ref: Mitchell, J. (1911). Burden of industrial accidents. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 38(1), 76-82.
SafetyInsights.org 