Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/252

 EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY IN FRANCE their work or for the families of those killed therein. The result is to divide victims of accidents and injuries into two classes, viz: •employees and non-employees, to give the former a right of action based, not upon the idea of negligence, but upon their status, and to deprive this class of their former right of action on the statutory ground of negligence, where it existed, under the Code. The law as it stands is the target for a fusil lade of criticism from the French press, directed not less against the decisions con struing it than against the text of the law itself. But it is a long step in the right direction and, with the modifications which may safely be predicted in the near future, will do much to define and perfect the sub stantive law and to better the condition of the French workingman in the important matter of compensation for personal in juries. The chief objections which are urged against the new law are : 1. Its discrimination against employees engaged in agriculture. 2. Its tendency, by providing larger pen sions in the cases of married men who are the victims of accidents than those of un married men, to favor bachelor applicants in the eyes of prospective employers; and,

227

3. Its failure to provide compensation for injuries, however severe, which do not affect the earning capacity. There is, of course, the further objection, from the point of view of the employer, that his business is subjected to a burden which, in some kinds of commerce, may prove onerous. But the result will be, it would seem, to ultimately adjust the scale of wages to meet the increased risk. As a practical matter this problem is very gen erally met by insuring the employees against injuries for which the employer is liable, the insurance companies taking over the employer's liability. The expense of these policies of insurance also must obviously be borne, eventually, by the workmen. For injuries for which the employer is not liable the workman may have protection by a Bureau of Insurance under the super vision and guaranty of the State, the de tails of the organization and management of which do not admit of treatment within the limits of this article.1 PARIS, FRANCE, February, 1906.

1 Sec law, July n, 1863.